ZEopsfielb 


Xibrar\> 


I  I 


No..h 


REGULATIONS. 


ARTICLE  i.  The  Library  and  PjgSKgRoom  will 
be  open  every  Wednesday  and  Saurroay  evening  from 
7  until  9  o'clock,  and  every  Saturday  afternoon  from 
3  until  4.30  o'clock. 

ART.  2.  All  Residents  of  Topsfield,  above  the  age 
of  12  years,  shall  have  the  right  to  take  books  from 
the  Library. 

ART.  3.  No  person  shall  be  allowed  more  than 
two  volumes  at  any  one  time  ;  and  no  book  shall  be 
kept  out  of  the  Library  more  than  fourteen  days, 
while  the  time  MAY  be  limited  to  SEVEN  days  when 
the  book  is  in  great  demand. 

ART.  4.  Any  person  retaining  a  book  longer  than 
the  specified  time,  shall  incur  a  fine  of  FIVE  cents  for 
every  week  it  is  so  retained. 

ART.  5.  All  injuries  to  books,  and  all  losses,  shall 
be  made  good  by  the  person  responsible  for  the  book. 

ART.  6.  All  books  shall  be  returned  to  the  Li- 
brary for  examination  TEN  days  before  the  Annual 
Town  Meeting,  under  penalty  of  a  fine  of  fifty  cents. 

ART.  7.  No  person  owing  a  fine  or  forfeiture  shall 
receive  books  from  the  Library  until  the  same  is  paid. 


IN   LYNN    WOODS 


WITH  PEN  AND  CAMERA 


BY 

MORTIMER  HAWKES 


Stranger,  if  thou  hast  learned  a  truth  which  needs 

No  school  of  long:  experience,  that  this  world 

Is  full  of  guilt  and  misery,  and  hast  seen 

Enough  of  all  its  sorrows,  crimes  and  cares 

To  tire  thee  of  it,  enter  this  wild  wood. 

And  view  the  haunts  of  Nature.     The  calm  shade 

Shall  bring  a  kindred  calm,  and  the  sweet  breeze 

That  makes  the  green  leaves  dance,  shall  waft  a  balm 

To  thy  sick  heart. 

—  BRYANT 


LYNN,    MASS. 

THOS.     P.     NICHOLS 
1893 


Copyright,  1892, 
BY  NATHAN  M.  HAWKES. 


THE    NIC'HOLS    PRESS, 
THOS.    P.    NICHOLS,    LYNN.    MASS. 


AT  THE  GATES  of  the  forest,  the  surprised  man  of  the  world  is  forced  to 
leave  his  city  estimates  of  great  and  small,  wise  and  foolish.  The  knapsack 
of  custom  falls  off  his  back  with  the  first  step  he  takes  into  these  precincts. 
Here  is  sanctity  which  shames  our  religions,  and  reality  which  discredits  our 
heroes.  Here  we  find  Nature  to  be  the  circumstance  which  dwarfs  every 
other  circumstance,  and  judges  like  a  god  all  men  that  come  to  her.  "We 
have  crept  out  of  our  close  and  crowded  houses  into  the  night  and  morning, 
and  we  see  what  majestic  beauties  daily  wrap  us  in  their  bosom.  How 
willingly  we  would  escape  the  barriers  which  render  them  comparatively 
impotent,  escape  the  sophistication  and  second  thought,  and  suffer  Nature 
to  entrance  us.  The  tempered  light  of  the  woods  is  like  a  perpetual  morning, 
and  is  stimulating  and  heroic.  The  anciently-reported  spells  of  these  places 
creep  on  us.  The  stems  of  pines,  hemlocks,  and  oaks  Almost  gleam  like  iron 
on  the  excited  eye.  The  incommunicable  trees  begin  to  persuade  us  to  live 
with  them,  and  quit  our  life  of  solemn  trifles. 

—  EMERSON. 


PREFACE. 


THE  notable  achievement  of  Lynn  in  restoring  its  ancient 
forest  to  the  highest  form  of  communal  use  has  become 
known  beyond  our  borders.  Already  the  advance  guard 
of  pilgrims  has  seen  its  beauties  and  sung  its  praises. 
An  ever  increasing  throng  of  lovers  of  Nature  will  visit 
Lynn  to  enjoy  its  greatest  attraction  —  its  silvan  retreat. 
Others  have  given  land,  cash,  business  ability  and  enthusi- 
asm to  the  grand  project.  In  a  cause  that  attracts  all  the 
loyal  sons  of  the  old  town  I  could  not  be  wholly  an  idler, 
hence  this  little  book.  Whatever  else  it  may  be,  it  will  at 
least  serve  to  exhibit  the  skill  of  our  amateur  photographers, 
and  the  excellent  work  of  our  handicraftsmen  in  the  art 
preservative.  It  is  neither  a  guide-book  nor  a  history. 
There  are  some  things  in  it  that  have  caused  the  Breakfast 
Table  critic  to  style  the  writer  a  browsing  antiquary.  I, 
however,  can  lay  no  claim  to  the  standing  of  an  antiquarian. 
I  have  a  reverence  for  the  fathers,  and  a  deep  respect  for 
the  men  of  modern  Lynn,  historians,  naturalists,  and  men  of 
affairs,  who  have  worked  together  to  dedicate  to  all  genera- 
tions that  follow  us  the  inestimable  boon  of  the  Lynn 
Woods.  The  woods  have  cherished  the  names  of  some  of 
the  planters  for  more  than  two  centuries.  That  they  will 
perpetuate  the  memories  of  some  of  our  citizens  who  are 
named  in  these  sketches  for  an  even  longer  period  is  my 
confident  belief. 


VI  PREFACE. 

Giving  due  credit,  I  have  not  hesitated  to  use  some 
descriptions  of  Mr.  Lewis,  Mr.  Newhall  and  Mr.  Tracy. 

It  is  quite  likely  that  if  I  could  have  made  the  whole 
work  a  mosaic  from  the  writings  of  such  eminent  authorities 
it  would  have  been  more  satisfactory.  The  ground  to  be 
traveled,  however,  was  largely  untrodden,  so  that  my  pen 
had  to  do  some  pioneer  scribbling. 

The  result  is  submitted  not  as  a  commercial  literary 
effort  (for  that,  as  some  know,  would  have  been  drudgery 
to  a  lazy  man),  but  as  a  labor  of  love,  which  will  be  amply 
rewarded  if  the  visitor  shall  think  it  worthy,  for  want  of  a 
better,  to  be  preserved  as  a  Souvenir  of  Lynn  Woods. 

LYNN,  MASS., 
November  1,  1892. 


CONTENTS. 


I.    EVOLUTION 1 

II.    USE 10 

III.  ROADS         .        .                 14 

IV.  LANDINGS 19 

Y.    WALLS  AND  PASTURES 21 

VI.    DUNGEON  ROCK 28 

VII.      TOMLINS'  SWA3TP  —  A   CONSERVATOR  OF  OLD  XAMES  40 

VIII.    BURRILL  HILL           .        .        ...        .        .  47 

IX.     MOUNT  GILEAD .53 

X.    THE  GLEN .        .  '  60 

XI.    PONDS 67 

XII.    Ox  PASTURE  WATCH  TOWER 75 

XIII.     APPENDIX 81 

Public  forest  Trust 81 

Names  of  Contributors     ....  .95 

Area  of  Public  Grounds              ....  96 

Area  of  Ponds 96 

Distances         ........  97 

Height  of  Hills  in  Lynn  Woods         ....  97 

Of  the  Laying  Out  of  Public  Parks  by  Towns  and  Cities  98 

Ordinances      .                    ......  103 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Aaron  Burrill's  Pines Frontispiece 

Approach  from  Walnut  Street         .         ...         .         .         .  1 

Gate  House,  Breed's  Pond 10 

Winter*                     14 

Dungeon  Road  —  Hemlock  Ridge 17 

Road  to  Dungeon  Rock           .......  28 

The  Dungeon  * 33 

Tomlins'  Swamp,  near  Penny  Bridge              .         .         .         .  40 

A  Burrill  Hill  Path 48 

Outlook  from  Mount  Gilead 53 

Old  Man's  Walk 60 

Penny  Brook 64 

Breed's  Pond 67 

Walden  Pond* 73 

Road  by  Glen  Lewis  Pond     .......  74 

Near  Ox  Pasture  * 76 

Group 81 

*  Furnished  by  the  kindness  of  the  SOUVENIR  PUBLISHING  COMPANY,  Lynn. 


EVOLUTION. 


Such  is  the  gift  which  the  good  God,  working  through  social  history  and  natural 
history,  and  statute  laws,  and  the  hearts  of  men,  has  given  to  the  present  and  the 
future  people  of  Lynn. 

EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE. 


WILLIAM  WOOD  came  to  Lynn  in  1629.  His 
father,  John  Wood,  was  the  leader  of  the  little 
band  of  Puritans  who  strayed  away  from  Endi- 
cott's  colony  at  Salem,  and  his  name  has  attached  to  the 
Eastern  (Woodend)  part  of  Lynn  to  this  day.  While  here 
William  Wood  wrote  a  book,  which  is  a  classic  in  New  Eng- 
land bibliography.  It  is  entitled  "New  England's  Prospect" 
It  is  the  first  book  that  was  ever  written  on  the  soil  of  Lynn. 
He  thus  writes  of  our  water :  "  It  is  farr  different  from  the 
waters  of  England,  being  not  so  sharp  but  of  a  fatter  sub- 
stance, and  of  a  more  jettie  color ;  it  is  thought  there  can 
be  no  better  water  in  the  world ;  yet  dare  I  not  prefer  it 
before  good  beere,  as  some  have  done ;  but  any  man  will 
choose  it  before  bad  beere,  whey  or  buttermilk." 

But  when  in  his  botanical  quest  he  came  upon  our  woods 
he  found  prose  too  mean  a  vehicle  for  his  delighted  thoughts. 
Hence  he  drops  into  quaint  poetry.  These  are  the  first  lines 
ever  penned  about  the  woods  of  Lynn  : 

"  Trees  both  in  hills  and  plaines,  in  plenty  be, 
The  long  liv'd  Oake,  and  mournful  Cypris  tree, 
Skie-towering  Pines,  and  Chesnuts  coated  rough, 
The  lasting  Cedar,  with  the  Walnut  tough; 

(1) 


IN    LYNN   WOODS. 


The  rosin-dropping  Firr  for  masts  in  use; 

The  boatmen  seeke  for  oares,  light,  neat-grown  Sprewse, 

The  brittle  Ash,  the  ever-trembling  Aspes, 

The  broad-spread  Elme,  whose  concave  harbors  waspes; 

The  water-spongie  Alder,  good  for  nought, 

Small  Elderne  by  th"  Indian  Fletchers  sought, 

The  knottie  Maple,  pallid  Birtch,  Hawthornes, 

The  Hornbound  tree  that  to  be  cloven  scornes, 

Which,  from  the  tender  Vine  oft  taks  its  spouse, 

Who  twinds  imbracing  armes  about  his  boughes. 

Within  this  Indian  Orchard  fruits  be  some, 

The  ruddie  Cherrie  and  the  jettie  Plumbe, 

Snake  murthering  Hazell,  with  sweet  Saxaphrage, 

Whose  spurnes  in  beere  allays  hot  fever's  rage, 

The  diars  (dyer's)  Shumach,  with  more  trees  there  be, 

That  are  both  good  to  use  and  rare  to  see." 


The  Lynn  Woods  are  in  the  chain  of  granite  hills  that 
stand  watch  and  ward  over  Massachusetts  Bay  from  Quincy 
to  Rockport.  Unsuited  for  agriculture  by  their  ruggedness 
and  remoteness,  they  were  occupied  or  unoccupied  in  com- 
mon until  1706.  And  even  then  by  a  unique  vote  they 
were  practically  kept  unvexed  by  walls  or  buildings  down 
to  the  time  of  their  purchase  or  condemnation  for  a  public 
reservation. 

"  The  towne  considering  the  great  difficulty  of  laying  out 
highways  on  the  common  lands,  by  reason  of  the  swamps, 
hills,  and  rockenes  of  the  land,  theirfore  voated,  that  after 
said  common  lands  shall  be  divided,  every  person  interested 
therein,  shall  have  free  liberty  at  all  times,  to  pass  and 
repass  over  each  others'  lotts  of  lands,  to  fetch  their  wood 
and  such  other  things  as  shall  be  upon  their  lands,  in  any 
place  or  places,  and  for  no  other  ends,  provided  they  do  not 
cut  downe  any  sort  of  tree  or  trees  in  their  so  passing 
over." 

As    the    lands    were    divided    among   the    householders 


EVOLUTION. 


according  to  tax  rates,  the  lots  varied  greatly  in  size.  They 
were  largely  held  from  generation  to  generation  in  the 
families  to  whom  they  were  allotted.  The  year's  supply  of 
wood  was  cut  in  winter  and  the  rest  of  the  year  they  were 
the  unmolested  haunts  of  wild  birds  and  beasts.  In  their 
sunny  nooks 

"  Full  many  a  flower  was  horn  to  blush  unseen 
And  waste  its  sweetness  on  the  desert  air." 

It  is  trenching  upon  the  marvelous  to  relate  that  a  busy 
manufacturing  town  on  the  seacoast  of  Massachusetts  awoke 
one  morning  to  find  itself  possessed  of  a  grander  natural 
park  than  any  city  in  the  land  —  a  larger  one  in  area,  in 
proportion  to  population,  than  any. 

Lynn  is  one  of  the  oldest  of  the  Puritan  settlements  of 
the  Bay  Colony.  Upon  these  woods  of  ours,  looking  then 
just  as  they  do  now,  the  eyes  of  John  Winthrop  and  John 
Endicott  gazed  as  they  passed  to  and  fro  between  Boston 
and  Salem.  Sir  ^Edmund  Andros  and  Simon  Bradstreet 
passed  by  the  great  forest.  It  kept  the  north  wind  from 
chilling  Washington  as  he  made  his  triumphal  journey 
through  New  England  after  he  became  President,  and  waved 
a  glad  welcome  to  Lafayette  when  he  rode  through  Boston 
street  under  the  floral  arches  in  after  days. 

Not  long  after  the  division  of  the  common  lands,  shoe- 
making  began  to  be  an  important  industry  in  Lynn.  In 
1750,  John  Adam  Dagyr,  a  skilled  Welch  shoemaker,  ap- 
peared and  gave  a  great  impetus  to  the  gentle  craft  of 
leather.  The  warmth  and  sociability  of  the  little  shoe- 
maker's shop  became  more  attractive  than  the  exposure  and 
hardship  of  frontier  farm  life.  So  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
woodlands  were  more  and  more  neglected,  till,  considered 


IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


almost  worthless,  they  were  forgotten.  The  population  was 
sparse  and  its  habits  were  sedentary.  All  the  time,  however, 
there  was  a  growth,  but  the  boys  went  to  work  at  the  bench. 
Lynn  became  a  city.  Shoe  machinery  did  away  with  the 
social  democratic  shoe  shop  life  of  a  homogeneous  people. 

Strange  tongues  were  heard  in  the  streets.  Diversified 
industries  came  in.  Factory  life  became  distaseful  to  the 
descendants  of  the  early  comers.  The  noise  of  machinery 
hinders  thought.  Tired  brains  looked  through  aching  eyes 
toward  the  green-covered  hilltops.  A  law  of  heredity, 
which  had  been  repressed  in  the  stern  Puritans,  both  here 
and  in  old  England,  but  which  had  survived  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race  from  the  time  it  had  emerged  from  the  forests  of 
Germany,  awakened  under  changed  conditions  the  senti- 
mental attachment  for  the  woods. 

The  myriads  of  wood  pigeons,  whose  flight  was  so  thick  as 
to  obscure  the  sun,  had  gone.  The  honk  of  the  wild  goose 
in  his  annual  migration  was  still  heard.  That  born  thief, 
the  little  red  fox,  still  robbed  the  partridge  of  the  brown 
eggs  in  her  nest  in  the  cleft  of  the  tree  close  to  the  ground. 
The  gray  squirrel  found  abundant  stores  of  that  hick- 
ory nut  —  the  shagbark  —  precious  alike  to  squirrel  and 
Yankee  boy.  The  wild  grape  clambered  over  the  gray 
rocks,  climbed  the  sturdy  oaks,  and  its  luscious  fruit  grew 
purple  beneath  September's  sun.  The  lowly  sweet  fern  and 
the  lordly  pine  each  perfumed  the  air  with  its  aroma.  For- 
tunately for  the  future,  that  even  cleavage  of  the  rock  forma- 
tion which  attracts  the  stone-cutter  elsewhere,  was  missing 
here.  The  sportsman  and  the  wood  chopper  were  indeed 
enemies ;  but  the  mischief  they  did  Nature  knew  how  to 
repair.  The  beetling  cliffs,  the  great  swamps,  the  sunny 


EVOLUTION. 


glades  and  the  secluded  recesses  of  the  forest  existed  in 
their  pristine  charms. 

A  variety  of  motives  drew  attention  to  the  old  woods. 
Dungeon  Rock  for  generations  had  held  a  sealed  mystery. 
The  residence  there  of  Hiram  Marble  had  been  a  magnet  to 
draw' the  out-of-doors  believers  in  his  creed. 

It  was-  a  utilitarian  motive  that  rescued  the  water  shed 
and  shores  of  Breed's  Pond  in  its^  purchase  by  the  City  in 
1870  as  a  source  of  water  supply.  From  that  time  onward 
till  the  final  environment  of  the  woods  with  a  belt  of  arti- 
ficial ponds  for  the  use  of  the  City,  the  genius  of  Edwin 
Walden  led  public  thought  in  this  direction. 

Then  Cyrus  M.  Tracy,  the  author  of  "Studies  of  the  Essex 
Flora"  an  earnest  and  intelligent  worshipper  at  the  shrine 
of  the  beautiful  in  Nature,  organized  the  "  Exploring  Circle," 
and  in  1882  formulated  a  plan  for  preserving  the  woods  by 
securing  titles  in  them  through  the  medium  of  a  trust, 
entered  into  between  the  City  of  Lynn  and  the  "  Trustees 
of  the  Public  Forest."  A  copy  of  this  deed  of  trust  should 
be  set  forth  as  an  important  historical  document.  It  created 
a  trust  in  the  hands  of  loyal  sons  of  Lynn.  Under  it  the 
Trustees  acquired  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  including 
Penny  Brook  Glen  and  Dungeon  Rock. 

If  the  woods  had  remained  in  the  condition  in  which  they 
existed  down  to  1889,  a  gradual  acquisition  by  purchase 
might  have  been  possible,  but  in  that  year  a  mighty  change 
in  surroundings  occurred.  The  Public  Water  Board  filled 
the  valley  from  North  Saugus  to  Wyoma  with  Walden  and 
Glen  Lewis  Ponds.  If  the  change  had  stopped  there  the 
character  of  the  woods  might  not  have  experienced  imminent 
danger.  But  the  ponds  were  girded  with  a  smooth  highway 


IN    LYNN    WOODS. 


that  pierced  the  woods  and  made  them  accessible  to  all  the 
meaner  kinds  of  human  occupation. 

A  more  heroic  method  and  a  more  speedy  one  must  be 
adopted,  if  the  woods  were  to  be  saved  intact.  The  means 
were  at  hand.  The  Legislature  had  in  1882  passed  what  is 
popularly  known  as  "  The  Park  Act."  The  act,  with  other 
documents,  will  be  found  in  the  appendix.  This  act  was 
accepted  by  the  citizens  of  Lynn  at  the  State  election,  Nov- 
ember 6,  1888.  Citizens  interested  in  preserving  the  water 
shed  of  the  ponds  and  the  wild  scenery  of  the  woods,  under 
the  inspiration  of  Philip  A.  Chase,  pledged  the  sum  of 
twenty  thousand  dollars,  "  to  aid  the  City  of  Lynn  in  the 
purchase  and  improvement  of  the  land  in  Lynn  Woods  as  a 
Public  Park."  The  City  Council  quickly  responded  to  this 
public-spirited  tender,  and  on  the  9th  of  July,  1889,  appro- 
priated the  sum  of  thirty  thousand  dollars  for  the  purpose 
of  carrying  out  the  provisions  of  the  Park  Act. 

The  Board  of  Park  Commissioners  organized  in  October, 
1889,  with  Philip  A.  Chase  as  Chairman,  and  Frank  W. 
Jones  as  Secretary.  Isaac  K.  Harris  was  employed  as  sur- 
veyor. Under  his  direction  a  map,  showing  the  existing 
ways  and  foot-paths,  with  the  numerous  lot  owners,  hills, 
brooks  and  swamps,  was  prepared.  The  tract  embraced  in 
this  first  taking  belonged  to  about  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  owners,  scattered  all  over  the  country.  With  infinite 
pains,  the  Commissioners  ran  the  titles  of  these  various  lots 
back  to  the  original  laying-out  in  1706. 

The  Commissioners,  in  their  report  for  1890,  say  that  they 
have  completed  the  taking  of  lands  in  Lynn  Commons,  and 
find  that  the  number  of  acres,  by  survey,  is  996,  which  have 
been  acquired  as  follows  : 


EVOLUTION. 


By  purchase 815 

By  gift 67 

By  condemnation 114 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  whole  tract,  however  obtained, 
has  been  condemned  to  establish  a  perfect  title  in  cases  of 
ill-defined  boundaries,  possible  unknown  heirs  and  claimants. 

The  entire  area  in  this  forest  for  public  use  is  sixteen 
hundred  acres.  Adjoining  lands  taken  by  the  Water  Board, 
land  owned  by  the  city,  and  three  hundred  and  four  acres 
in  the  ponds,  make  up  this  total. 

The  Commissioners  in  their  reports  have  only  done  justice 
in  singling  out  Cyrus  M.  Tracy  for  special  mention,  as  the 
organizer  and  director  of  the  Free  Public  Forest  movement. 
In  their  report  for  1890,  they  say  of  the  Trustees : 

';  The  Trustees  of  the  Free  Public  Forest,  who  had  acquired 
by  gift  and  purchase  about  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  in 
Lynn  Commons,  transferred  the  same  to  the  City  of  Lynn. 

"  The  Trustees,  aware  of  their  own  limitations,  recognized 
in  the  powers  conferred  on  the  Commissioners,  by  the  Park 
Act,  the  means  to  attain  the  chief  aim  of  their  own  organi- 
zation. The  City  Council  voted  to  assume  and  fulfil  all  the 
conditions  that  the  deed  of  trust  imposed  upon  the  Trustees, 
and  to  pay  all  liens  on  the  property  conveyed,  and  all  the 
indebtedness  of  the  trust. 

"  Our  citizens  will  remember  the  pioneer  work  of  the  Trus- 
tees of  the  Free  Public  Forest  with  gratitude.  To  them 
belongs  the  honor  of  taking  the  first  steps  to  make  Lynn 
Commons  free.  Their  acceptance  of  the  methods  that  their 
successors  found  indispensable  to  achieve  success,  and  their 
ready  co-operation,  is  a  testimony  of  their  singleness  of 
purpose  and  zeal." 


8  IN   LYNX    WOODS. 


The  names  of  the  contributors  to  the  fund  to  secure  the 
land  and  to  build  the  roads  will  be  given  elsewhere. 

A  statement  of  the  gifts  of  land  —  much  of  it  prized  as 
heirlooms,  through  long  hereditary  holding,  and  hence  making 
it  more  of  a  sacrifice  than  its  mere  value  in  money  —  is  here 
presented  in  acres  and  rods : 

Acres          Rods 
John  B.  and  Hattie  C.  Newhall 18  50 

Amos  F.  Breed 3  60 

Heirs  of  Philip  Chase  . 4  20 

Dr.  Edward  Newhall 7  140 

Pamelia  B.  Mudge 5 

C.  F.  Coffin 17  140 

J.  Purinton 1  60 

T.  A.  Newhall 2  20 

W.  O.  Newhall 7  10 

67  20 

In  the  closing  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  City 
of  Lynn  consecrates  to  its  people  and  to  posterity,  a  magnifi- 
cent domain  in  the  primeval  forest.  Our  fathers  called  it 
Lynn  Woods.  Let  that  remain  its  name  forever ! 

It  is  believed  that  nowhere  in  the  world  are  so  many 
surprises  of  Nature  within  convenient  reach  of  such  a  large 
urban  population,  as  upon  this  territory.  No  one  can  hope 
to  possess  himself  of  all  its  infinite  variety  of  charm.  One 
might  live  far  beyond  the  allotted  span  of  man,  spend  every 
day  of  his  life  in  searching  out  its  secrets,  and  at  its  close 
there  would  be  more  marvels  unrevealed  than  his  eyes  had 
looked  upon. 

Unlike  most  of  the  reservations  that  are  devoted  to  park 
purposes,  this  one  comes  to  us  not  raw,  nor  new,  nor  to  be 
planted,  ornamented  nor  improved,  but  an  ancient  forest, 
full  of  the  traditions  and  lives  of  our  ancestors. 


EVOLUTION. 


A  properly  guarded  woodland  presents  a  sharp  contrast 
to  any  other  public  or  private  property.  That  is  to  say,  any 
building  or  any  road  is  at  its  best  when  newly  constructed. 
Each  year  takes  away  value.  With  the  woods  the  reverse 
is  true.  The  older  they  are  the  greater  their  value,  not 
only  from  the  aesthetical  but  from  the  pecuniary  standpoint. 
Of  course,  individual  trees  fall  out,  but  others  and  better 
take  their  places.  This  progression  goes  on  for  centuries  — 
without  limitation.  Every  oncoming  generation  will  receive 
a  richer  blessing  from  these  shades  than  the  one  that  precedes, 
and  this  in  proportion  as  the  woods  are  left  or  kept  in  a 
natural  state,  so  as  to  offer  the  greatest  opposition  to  the 
artificial  conditions  of  city  life,  which  toiling  men  and  women 
will  come  here  to  avoid  and  to  forget. 


USE. 


'  T  is  use  alone  that  sanctifies  expense.— POPE. 

(Law)    The  benefit  or  profit  of  lands  and  tenements. 

Use  imports  a  trust  and  confidence  reposed  in  a  man  for  the  holding  of  lands. 

He  to  whose  use  or  benefit  the  trust  is  intended  shall  enjoy  the  profits. 

IT  SHOULD  be  strongly  impressed  upon  the  public 
mind,  in  considering  the  Lynn  Woods,  that  the  use  of 
this  great  communal  reservation  as  a  place  of  recrea- 
tion is  simply  a  subordinate  incident,  which  grows  out  of 
the  high  motives  that  actuated  the  taking.  Whatever  other 
trusts  are  placed  in  the  keeping  of  the  Park  Commissioners, 
their  paramount  duty  will  be  to  guard  the  woods  as  the 
essential  safe-guard  of  the  purity  of  our  water  supply  and  of 
its  continuing  abundance.  Out  of  the  utilitarian  planting 
germinates  the  perennial  aesthetic.  To  say  nothing  of  the 
beautiful,  the  Lynn  Woods  have  acquired  more  than  a  local 
—  even  a  national  —  fame  as  a  successful  municipal  experi- 
ment in  practical  forestry ;  that  is,  in  keeping  our  hillsides 
clothed  with  the  living  drapery  of  the  trees,  so  that  the  soil 
may  not  shrivel  nor  the  springs  dry  up. 

The  State  Board  of  Agriculture  of  the  Commonwealth,  in 
the  Report  for  1890,  reporting  upon  "the  condition  of  the 
forests  of  the  State,  the  need  and  method  of  their  protection 
for  sanitary  and  other  reasons,"  refers  to  our  woods  as  follows : 

"  In  considering  our  woodlands  from  a  sanitary  or  other 

(10) 


USE.  11 

standpoint,  it  may  be  said  that  the  small  proportion  of  old 
forest  must  lessen  the  value  of  our  woods  as  a  source  of 
water  supply  in  the  State,  because  forest  land  is  productive 
of  springs ;  although  springs  are  sometimes  found  in  open 
hillsides,  as,  for  example,  those  supplying  Cottage  City  and 
Vineyard  Haven.  The  forests,  when  surrounding  the  reser- 
voirs of  water  supplies  —  as  has  been  accomplished  in  the 
City  of  Lynn  —  are  a  very  important  means  of  protecting  the 
purity  of  the  water,  and  consequently  the  health  of  our 
people,  when  such  water  is  used  for  domestic  purposes." 

In  the  same  report  the  Chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Forests  states  that  while  in  attendance  upon  the  joint  meet- 
ing of  the  American  Economic  and  Forestry  Associations  at 
Washington,  December  30,  last,  he  introduced  the  subject 
of  the  woodlands  of  this  State,  and  that  "  the  public  reserva- 
tion of  forest  land  in  the  City  of  Lynn  was  referred  to  in 
words  of  high  praise."  To  maintain  the  credit  which  Lynn 
has  acquired  by  the  creation  of  this  noble  public  domain, 
will  not  depend  upon  the  amount  of  money  we  expend  on 
appliances  for  feeding  hungry  crowds,  the  building  of  elab- 
orate structures,  or  the  massing  of  gaudy  plants.  Our 
problem  is  to  keep  noxious  influences  away  from  the  woods, 
to  control  destroying  agencies,  such  as  fire  and  poacher,  to 
encourage  our  hardy  New  England  trees  to  re-assert  their  dom- 
inance in  a  region  where  once  they  held  lordly  sway.  Under 
what  is  known  as  "  The  Park  Act,"  Chapter  154  of  the  Acts 
and  Resolves  of  1882,  we  are  accomplishing  all  that  the 
same  Legislature  intended  in  passing  (Chap.  255)  "  an  Act 
authorizing  towns  and  cities  to  provide  for  the  preservation 
and  reproduction  of  forests,"  with  the  added  advantage  that 
the  title  to  our  lands  is  vested  in  the  city  and  not  in  the 


12  IN    LYNN   WOODS. 


Commonwealth,  and  our  Board  of  Control  being  exclusively 
a  local  one,  gives  an  assurance  that  home  pride  will  cherish 
our  goodly  heritage  closer  than  an  itinerant  Board  of  Forestry 
could  do. 

Prof.  B.  E.  Fernow,  Chief  of  the  Forestry  Division  of  the 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  writing  concern- 
ing the  protection  of  woodlands  by  law,  says : 

"  As  far  as  legislation  can  effect  anything,  I  believe 
Massachusetts  has  done  as  well  as  any  State  in  regard  to 
her  forestry  interests.  The  effect  of  your  act  enabling 
towns  to  own  communal  forests,  in  creating  the  public  forest 
at  Lynn,  shows  that  where  the  citizens  are  really  alive  to 
the  question,  they  will  take  advantage  of  the  law.  What  is 
needed  is,  that  citizens  be  made  alive  and  aware  of  the 
advantages  accruing  from  the  application  of  the  law,  and 
they  will  apply  it." 

The  buoyant  American  fancy  that  our  territory  was  so 
vast  and  so  fertile  that  we  could  invite  all  the  peoples  of  the 
earth  to  our  shores,  and  lay  waste  our  virgin  forests  with 
impunity,  has  received  a  violent  shock  in  late  years.  It  has 
been  discovered  that  there  is  a  limit  to  the  hordes  of  vaga- 
bonds and  outlaws  shipped  to  us  from  the  slums  of  the  world, 
that  "  the  land  of  the  free  and  the  home  of  the  brave  "  can 
safely  allow  to  change  with  necromantic  swiftness  into  sov- 
ereigns with  the  ballot  in  their  hands.  It  has  been  painfully 
manifested  that  vicious  and  ignorant  slashing  down  of  our 
woods  was  seriously  affecting  our  soil  and  climate.  It  is  as 
vital  to  the  welfare  of  our  people  to  call  a  halt  to  the 
forest  destruction  as  it  is  to  the  plague-spot  immigration.  An 
intelligent  observer,  Mr.  Francis  H.  Appleton,  relates  the 
result  of  such  waste  abroad  : 


USE.  13 

"  In  France,  as  the  population  increased,  and  as  all  avail- 
able land  was  demanded  for  uses  of  the  country  at  a  more 
recent  period  in  her  history,  it  became  necessary  to  reclaim 
her  mountain  sides  and  tops,  once  wooded,  from  a  barren 
waste  to  forests  again ;  and  in  consequence  of  the  stripping 
off  of  rooted  growth,  the  soil  had  been  gradually  washed 
from  the  mountain  sides  into  the  valleys;  streams  had  made 
new  courses  and  multiplied  them,  so  that  it  became  neces- 
sary for  the  government  of  France  to  be  put  to  enormous 
expense  for  building  dams,  and  otherwise,  to  enable  them 
to  again  regain  control  of  those  streams  and  send  them  back 
to  fixed  channels,  so  that  young  trees  could  be  planted  over 
the  hills  again,  to  gradually  remake  the  soil,  reform  the 
springs,  and  preserve  both  for  the  good  of  France.  A  costly 
example  was  thus  set  to  the  world." 

The  study  of  forestry  in  this  country  is  in  its  infancy. 
Its  importance  is  generally  recognized.  Lynn  has  begun  its 
share  in  the  work  in  a  proper  spirit.  There  remains  for  the 
City  Council  or  the  citizens,  the  duty  of  enlarging  our  forest 
area,  as  has  been  urged  in  the  Reports  of  the  Park  Com- 
mission, by  securing  for  the  public  weal  the  territory  known 
as  the  Ox  Pasture.  It  will  then  devolve  upon  that  Board 
to  apply  the  laws  of  forestry  to  the  whole  domain,  as  the 
correct  principles  of  that  science  are  developed. 


ROADS. 


PROM  the  earliest  days  of  the  occupation  of  Lynn  by 
white  men,  cart  paths  have  existed  in  the  woods, 
constructed  and  used  as  the  primitive  needs  of  the 
people  demanded.  The  great  artery  ran  from  east  to  west 
with  lateral  branches.  Unlike  a  turnpike  road,  it  avoided 
obstacles,  and  hence  pursued  a  devious  course  over  and 
around  the  hills.  Its  eastern  end  was  at  the  northern  part 
of  Sluice  Pond,  where  it  struck  the  highway  known  as  the 
Lynnfield  Road.  Its  western  terminus,  on  the  top  of  Hawkes' 
Hill,  in  Saugus,  found  another  traveled  way  known  as  the 
Downing  Road,  now  Walnut  street. 

This  trunk  way,  from  time  immemorial,  has  been  known 
as  the  Great  Woods  Road.  The  portion  in  Saugus  was 
severed  from  the  Lynn  section  by  the  construction  of  Wai- 
den  Pond.  It  crossed  Penny  Brook,  and  the  sunken  part  is 
now  at  the  base  of  the  horse-shoe.  The  first  work  done  by 
the  Park  Commission  (in  1890)  was  to  grade  this  road  — 
with  scarcely  a  change  in  its  course  from  Blood  Swamp 
Landing  to  Walden  Pond,  where  it  intersects  the  Pond 
Road,  constructed  by  the  Water  Board.  It  is  a  tribute  to 
the  sagacity  of  the  planters  to  acknowledge  that  modern 
engineering  could  find  no  better  course  for  the  new  pleasure 
driveway  than  the  fathers  used  for  their  utilitarian  purposes. 

(14) 


KOADS.  15 

The  obligation  is  acknowledged  by  retaining  the  old-time 
name,  the  Great  Woods  Road. 

A  slight  deflection  to  the  right,  going  up  the  road  from 
the  Landing,  leads  to  Echo  Rock,  a  bold  promontory,  at  the 
foot  of  which  glisten  the  placid  waters  of  Glen  Lewis  Pond, 
beyond  which  are  seen  the  precipitous  crags  and  wooded 
ravines  of  the  Ox  Pasture,  stretching  away  in  weird  solitude 
to  Lynnfield. 

One  of  the  woodmen's  index  fingers  upon  this  road  was  a 
bowlder,  appropriately  called  The  Sugar  Loaf.  Somewhat 
dwarfed  by  the  raising  of  the  grade,  it  may  still  be  seen 
at  the  point  where  the  Gilead  and  Dungeon  roads  radiate 
from  the  Great  Woods  Road. 

The  Mount  Gilead  Road,  also  built  in  1890,  in  the  main 
follows  the  spur  of  the  Woods  Road,  down  which  hickory  logs 
were  being  hauled  by  Goodman  Basset,  while  Marlborough 
was  winning  the  battle  of  Ramilles  for  "  Our  Sovereign  Lady 
Anne,  Queen  of  England." 

In  1891,  the  Gilead  Road  was  extended  from  the  southern 
outlook,  by  the  western  outlook,  to  the  Dungeon  Road,  to 
obviate  the  necessity  of  descending  the  mountain  by  the 
same  course  it  was  ascended,  doing  away  with  the  danger  of 
turning  on  the  often  crowded  loop,  and  also  giving  carriage 
visitors  a  glimpse  of  the  fascinating  western  outlook. 

The  Dungeon  Road,  finished  during  the  present  year, 
begins  its  sinuous  course  from  the  Great  Woods  Road,  just 
below  the  Gilead  Road.  It  sweeps  around  Mount  Gilead 
"  till,  tumbling  through  rocks  abrupt,"  it  pitches  into  the 
deep  dell,  over  which  frowns  the  sheer  granite  face  of  Gilead. 
Winding  around  the  base  of  the  hill,  turning  at  a  right 
angle,  the  road  crosses  a  bridge  over  RamsdelTs  Brook. 


16  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


This  name  is  a  reminder  of  the  purpose  of  the  Commission 
to  preserve  the  colonial  names  that  have  attached  themselves 
to  the  woods  through  ancient  traditions.  John  Ramsdell 
was  a  planter  as  early  as  1630.  His  autograph  may  yet  be 
seen  affixed  to  a  paper  signed  by  leading  citizens,  called  the 
Armitage  Petition.  Joseph  Ramsdell,  a  Lynn  soldier,  was 
killed  by  the  Indians  at  Casco  Bay  in  1690.  Abednego 
Ramsdell  is  one  of  our  Lynn's  immortals,  for  he  was  one  of 
her  four  sons  who  gave  their  life's  blood  in  the  cause  of 
liberty  upon  Lexington  Green,  April  19,  1775.  Six  other 
Ramsdells  served  in  the  Continental  armies  from  Lynn  in 
the  Revolutionary  War. 

Leaving  Ramsdell's  Brook,  the  road  ascends  a  ledgy  hill, 
where  the  soil  is  so  sparse  that  the  northern  tempests  play 
havoc  with  the  trees  that  struggle  to  fix  their  roots  in  the 
crevices.  Upon  the  western  slope  of  this  hill  as  a  compen- 
sation for  wreckage  of  tree  growth,  a  wondrous  woodland 
vista  opens.  Unlike  the  view  from  Gilead  or  Burrill,  or  the 
other  elevations,  the  distant  mountains,  waters,  ponds,  and 
all  creations  of  man's  handiwork  are  shut  out  from  sight. 
Instead  there  opens  to  the  enraptured  sight  a  vision  of 
waving  tree-tops  on  hills  and  intervales,  in  every  direction 
as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach  —  forest  all  along  the  sky  line  — 
woods  beneath  the  feet  —  woods  towering  above.  Into  this 
scene  of  enchantment  the  westering  red  sun  of  June  throws 
its  departing  rays.  Over  the  cliffs  on  the  east,  the  great 
silvery  orb  of  December's  moon  coldly,  gloriously  shines. 
Here  Nature  is  sublime  and  man  is  forgotten. 

Descend  this  hill,  skirt  its  flinty  side,  look  over  the  re- 
taining wall,  and  the  words  of  the  poet  will  seem  fit : 


ROADS.  17 

"Hail,  old  patrician  trees,  so  great  and  good! 
Hail,  ye  plebeian  underwood! 

Where  the  poetic  birds  rejoice, 
And  for  their  quiet  nests  and  plenteous  food, 
Pay  with  their  grateful  voice!" 

Up  again,  the  course  lies  along  Hemlock  Ridge,  where  the 
air  is  charged  with  balmy  odors. 

Next  is  reached  Pratt's  Bridge,  under  which  from  the 
northeast  flow  the  waters  from  Long  Swamp.  On  the  west 
the  waters  leap  into  a  deep  ravine,  through  a  rocky  gorge, 
forming  cascades  of  beauty.  Pratt  is  another  old  Lynn 
name  well  worthy  to  retain  its  niche  in  our  temple  of 
Nature. 

Down  below  Pratt's  Bridge,  where  the  laughing  brook 
glides,  embowered  in  evergreen,  where  the  footsteps  noise- 
lessly press  the  velvety  moss  turf,  lies  fair  Glen  Dagyr. 

Then  one  of  the  walls  of  the  fathers  —  the  middle  pasture 
wall  —  gives  entrance  to  the  table  land  north  of  the  Dun- 
geon. To  the  right  may  be  seen  the  curious  Union  Rock. 
Upon  the  left  are  the  ruins  of  the  octagonal  stone  buildings, 
which  the  spiritualists  of  Lynn  began  during  the  period  of 
the  Marble  occupation.  Through  the  grove  to  the  south  is 
the  famed  Dungeon  Rock. 

Evading  the  breakneck  grade  of  the  old  Dungeon  Road 
the  new  makes  a  half  circle  around  the  hill.  This  opens 
through  a  rift  in  the  trees  a  vista  into  the  little  Arcadia, 
called  Dungeon  Vale,  where  several  families  chose  to  dwell 

"  Far  from  the  madding  crowd's  ignoble  strife." 

till  dispossessed  by  the  Park  Commission.  Giant  pines  tower 
skyward  over  the  road.  At  the  horsesheds  the  new  road 
ends  in  the  old  Dungeon  way. 


18  IN    LYNN    WOODS. 


Up  this  road  the  devotees  of  modern  Spiritualism  thronged 
a  generation  ago,  to  give  aid  and  council  to  Hiram  Marble 
in  his  search  for  the  spoils  of  Tom  Veal.  Waiting,  they 
whiled  away  the  summer  days  by  dancing  upon  the  platform 
at  the  base  of  the  rock.  Just  below,  among  the  pines  of 
Mudge's  Grove,  was  a  rude  building  where  other  spirits 
were  evoked.  The  old  road  between  Dog  Hill  and  Breed's 
Pond  to  the  Dungeon  Wall  was  narrow  and  out  of  repair, 
but  is  now  in  good  shape.  Across  the  upper  end  of  the 
Pond  the  Lantern  Rock  rears  its  lofty  peak. 

The  Dungeon  wall  is  the  southern  line  of  condemnation, 
but  as  the  City  has  bought  the  land  on  both  sides  of  the 
road  along  the  shady  banks  of  Breed's  Pond,  and  as  Messrs. 
Harrison  Newhall  and  Howard  Mudge  Newhall  have  made 
the  Commission  a  gift  of  the  rocky  bluff  at  the  intersection 
of  Walnut  Street,  the  Dungeon  Road  properly  finds  there 
its  terminus. 


LANDINGS. 


BLOOD'S  Swamp  Landing  and  the  Dungeon  Landing 
have  been  familiar  names  to  Lynn  yeomanry,  and  in 
Lynn  conveyances  from  Provincial  days.  They  have 
already  lost  their  significance,  and  the  inquirer  of  the  future 
may  ask  what  they  were  and  why  used  so  much  in  connec- 
tion with  L}~nn  Woods.  If  one  of  the  blue  frocked  drivers 
of  the  olden  time  could  revisit  the  scenes  of  his  former  life, 
where  he  was  wont  to  pile  his  winter's  fuel  upon  creaking 
ox-team,  and  guide  the  patient,  powerful  creatures  with  goad 
and  two  simple  words,  "  gee  "  and  "  haw,"  how  changed  he 
would  find  the  world. 

A  landing  was  a  cleared  common  space,  upon  which 
the  owners  of  wood  lots  hauled  from  the  swamps  or  the 
hills  their  wood  in  winter  when  the  ground  was  frozen  and 
covered  with  snow.  When  dried  by  the  summer's  sun  and 
wind,  it  was  re-loaded  upon  wheels  and  carried  home. 

Blood's  Swamp  Landing,  where  the  Woodenders,  the 
Gravesenders,  Estes  Fielders,  Nahant  Streeters  and  Mans- 
fieldenders  landed  their  wood,  is  covered  with  a  broad 
driveway,  a  Park  police  station  —  not  too  extravagant  — 
and  a  Lynn  and  Boston  Railroad  Station,  while  across 
Tarbox's  Plain,  betwen  the  gaunt  poles,  flies  the  modern 
broomstick  train. 

The   other  great  landing  was  called  the  Buriill  Hill  or 

(19) 


20  IX   LYNN    WOODS. 


Dungeon  Landing.  From  it  wood  roads  diverged  to  Cedar 
Hill,  Tomlins'  Swamp,  the  Island,  Dog  Hill,  and  all  the 
western  wood  lots.  Here  the  Breedsenders  and  the  Saugus 
men  came  for  their  winter's  fuel.  This  landing  has  changed 
less  than  the  eastern.  Another  evidence  of  the  wisdom  of 
the  fathers  -is  seen  in  the  use  of  these  principal  temporary 
storehouses  of  theirs  in  the  changed  life  of  the  present. 
The  eastern  landing  is  utilized  by  the  Lynn  and  Boston 
Railroad  as  its  landing  place  for  passengers,  while  the 
western  is  the  natural  terminus  of  the  Belt  Line  Railroad, 
which  is  pushing  up  to  the  woodland  approach  west  of  the 
Lantern.  The  shrewd  railroad  managers  of  the  closing 
years  of  the  nineteenth  century  found  that  their  normal 
and  only  possible  way  to  effect  a  landing  of  their  patrons 
had  been  pointed  out  to  them  by  the  planters  of  old  Lynn 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  before. 


WALLS    AND    PASTURES. 


THE  rude  stone  walls  across  the  Lynn  Woods  from 
Wyoma  to  Saugus,  on  the  range  lines — one  of 
which  is  under  the  upper  end  of  Breed's  Pond, 
beyond  which  it  strikes  the  Lantern,  and  another  loses  itself 
in  Birch  Pond  —  are  objects  of  wonder  to  those  who 
encounter  them. 

Through  swamps  and  over  hills  these  walls  extend  for 
miles,  so  straight  that  it  appears  as  if  their  builders  must 
have  been  gifted  with  an  extra  sense  —  that  of  seeing 
through  opaque  substances,  such  as  trees  and  boulders. 
Who  were  their  builders,  and  what  was  the  purpose  of  the 
Herculean  undertaking? 

The  Puritan  founders  of  Lynn  constructed  them.  To 
know  why  they  were  erected  involves  a  consideration  of  the 
"admirable  economic  system  of  land  tenure  which  shaped 
the  early  towns." 

The  church  was  the  nucleus  about  which  the  planters 
grouped  their  dwellings.  That  the  houses  might  be  within  a 
convenient  distance  from  the  church  and  from  each  other 
and  at  the  same  time  to  foster  that  spirit  of  loyalty  and 
independence,  which  springs  from  ownership  of  the  soil,  the 
Puritans  threw  away  utterly  the  last  traces  of  feudal  holding 
of  lands  for  service,  and  distributed  "  home  lots "  in  fee 
simple.  The  Pilgrims  at  Plymouth  tried  at  first  a  pure 

(21) 


IX   LYNX   WOODS. 


community  of  lands  and  of  goods.  The  Puritans  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay  made  no  such  mistake.  They  decreed  every 
man's  house  as  his  castle  in  a  truer  sense  than  Englishmen 
had  known  in  the  old  world.  Thus  they  established  con- 
venience to  attend  church,  and  nearness  to  each  other  for 
safety,  and  the  home  became  a  sacred  holding. 

The  Puritans,  however,  tried  an  experiment  of  herding  the 
stock  of  individuals  upon  Commons  held  by  the  town.  This 
custom  grew  out  of  the  Puritan  reverence  for  that  other 
chosen  people  —  the  Children  of  Israel.  The  Bay  laws  were 
based  on  the  Mosaic  Code,  and  the  people's  habits  were 
largely  pastoral,  like  the  ancient  people  of  Judea,  who  dwelt 
amongst  their  flocks  and  herds. 

Herding  in  common,  but  retaining  individual  ownership 
in  the  stock,  besides  being  a  labor-saving  device,  made  the 
settlers  neighborly  —  having  a  common  interest  in  the  gen- 
eral welfare.  Live  stock,  especially  "horned  cattle,"  were 
sent  out  by  the  company  in  England.  The  wild  lands 
afforded  ample  pasturage,  the  cattle,  sheep  and  swine  multi- 
plied and  enriched  their  owners. 

The  early  colonial  ordinances  teem  with  regulations  con- 
cerning cattle,  cornfields,  fences,  tolling  and  branding  of 
cattle,  trespass  by  cattle  and  swine,  damage  to  cattle  by 
wolves.  Cowherds,  shepherds  and  swineherds  became  classes. 

These  walls  were  built  under  the  authority  of  the  town, 
by  the  labor  of  all  the  males  of  the  plantation,  for  the  pro- 
tection and  separation  of  different  kinds  of  stock.  The  en- 
closure for  the  cows  was  nearest  to  the  settlement,  because 
they  must  be  driven  home  twice  in  twenty-four  hours  to  be 
milked. 

They  were  watchful  of  the  horse  pasture,  as  shown  in  the 


WALLS   AND    PASTURES.  23 

order  of  the  General  Court  of  1668,  directing  the  selectmen 
to  see  to  the  improvement  of  horses  that  ran  in  commons 
and  woods : 

"  Whereas,  the  Breed  of  Horses  in  the  country  is  utterly 
spoiled,  whereby  that  useful  creature  will  become  a  burthen, 
which  otherwise  might  be  beneficial,  and  the  occasion  thereof 
is  conceived  to  be  through  the  smalness  and  badness  of  stone 
horses  and  colts  that  run  in  commons  and  woods : 

"  For  the  prevention  whereof,  this  court  doth  order  and 
enact,  and  be  it  ordered  and  enacted  by  the  authority  hereof, 
that  no  stone  horse  above  two  years  old  shall  be  suffered  to 
go  in  commons  and  woods  at  liberty,  unless  he  be  of  comely 
proportion  and  sufficient  stature,  not  less  than  fourteen 
hands  high,  reckoning  four  inches  to  a  handfull,  and  such  a 
horse  be  viewed  and  allowed  by  the  major  part  of  the  select- 
men of  the  town  where  the  owner  lives. 

-And  if  any  person  or  persons  turn  any  stone  horse  upon 
the  commons,  or  at  liberty,  or  in  the  woods,  being  not 
viewed  and  allowed  as  before,  he  or  they  shall  forfeit  twenty 
shillings  a  month  for  every  stone  horse  running  at  liberty, 
after  he  is  two  years  old,  which  penalty  is  to  be  taken  by 
warrant  of  the  selectmen,  and  improved  to  the  towns  use ; 
and  if  the  selectmen  of  any  town  do  neglect  their  duty  in 
taking  their  fines,  and  viewing  such  as  are  brought  in, 
according  to  this  law,  they  shall  forfeit  twenty  shillings  to 
the  county  treasury ;  and  this  law  to  be  in  force  the  first 
October  next  [1668]." 

The  admirers  of  man's  noblest  servant  may  see  in  this 
colonial  regulation,  the  perfectly  developed  idea  of  correct 
horse  breeding.  The  early  settlers  had  as  clear  and  en- 
lightened views  upon  this  practical  matter  as  Robert  Bonner 
or  J.  I.  Case.  The  horse  pasture  was  north  of  the  present 
Pine  Grove  Cemetery,  and  its  cool  spring,  at  which  man  and 


24  IN   LYNN    WOODS. 


beast  slaked  thirst  in  the   olden  time,  has  never  failed  to 
yield  its  beneficent  beverage  to  this  day. 

An  order  of  the  General  Court  shows  the  strict  guards 
which  the  authorities  maintained  about  these  preserves  of 
the  favored  householders. 

"  It  is  ordered ;  that  hereafter  no  Cottage  or  Dwelling 
Place  shall  be  admitted  to  the  priviledge  of  Commonage  for 
Wood,  Timber,  and  Herbage,  or  any  other  the  Priviledge* 
that  lye  in  Common  in  any  Town  or  Peculiar,  but  such  as 
already  are  in  being,  or  hereafter  shall  be,  erected  by  the 
consent  of  the  Town  [1660]." 

The  Middle  Pasture  and  the  Dungeon  Pasture  are  in  the 
domain  of  the  Park  Commission. 

The  ox  pasture  of  the  fathers  was  in  the  wilderness, 
beyond  what  is  now  Glen  Lewis  Pond.  There  the  oxen 
roamed  and  browsed  the  herbage,  and  rubbed  their  backs 
against  the  trees  of  the  primeval  forest.  Farthest  from  the 
settlement,  it  was  more  exposed  to  the  ravages  of  the  wolves, 
hence  the  construction  of  the  wolf  pits,  which  yet  remain  a 
marvel  of  the  ingenuity  of  the  planters. 

Second  only  to  witches,  the  Puritans  feared  wolves.  In 
1645,  the  general  court  made  this  law  about  wolves : 

"Whereas,  great  Loss  and  Damage  doth  befall  this  Com- 
monwealth by  reason  of  Wolves,  which  destroy  great  numbers 
of  our  Cattle,  notwithstanding  provision  former!}'  made  by 
this  Court  for  suppressing  of  them,  therefore,  for  the  better 
encouragement  of  any  to  set  about  a  work  of  so  great  con- 
cernment, 

"  It  is  ordered  by  this  Court  and  the  Authority  thereof, 
that  any  person,  either  English  or  Indian,  that  shall  kill  any 
wolf  or  wolves,  within  ten  miles  of  any  Plantation  in  this 


WALLS    AND   PASTURES.  25 

jurisdiction,  shall  have  for  every  wolf  by  him  or  them  so 
killed  ten  shillings,  paid  out  of  the  Treasury  of  the  Country ; 
Provided  that  due  proof  be  made  thereof  unto  the  Planta- 
tion next  adjoining  where  such  wolf  or  wolves  were  killed : 
And  also  they  bring  a  Certificate  under  some  Magistrate's 
hand,  or  the  Constable  of  that  place  unto  the  Treasurer; 
Provided  also  that  this  Order  doth  intend  onely  such  Plan- 
tations as  do  Contribute  with  us  to  publick  charges,  and  for 
such  Plantations  upon  the  River  of  Piscataway  that  do  not 
join  with  us  to  carry  on  publick  charges,  they  shall  make 
payment  upon  their  own  charge." 

After  seventy-five  years  of  commonage,  the  habits  of  the 
people  had  changed.  The  soil  in  the  settlement  was  so  far 
redeemed  that  each  family  could  support  and  care  for  its 
stock  upon  its  home  land  more  conveniently  than  in  com- 
mon. The  laudable  passion  for  holding  lands  in  severalty 
so  far  prevailed  that  "  the  six  hundred  acres  "  on  the  west 
of  Saugus  River,  Nahant  and  the  great  northern  ranges, 
were  all  granted  to  the  householders  in  fee  simple. 

This  division  of  the  common  lands  seems  to  mark  an  out- 
cropping of  race  traits,  which,  in  the  beginning,  had  been 
subordinated  to  the  overmastering  influence  of  the  Mosaic 
laws  and  customs  upon  the  fathers.  It  took  place  after  the 
planters  were  in  their  graves  and  the  first  generation  of 
American-born  inhabitants  had  come  to  mature  years.  A 
thorough  test  of  community  of  ownership  in  lands  had  been 
tried,  and  was  deliberately  rejected.  The  Puritan  had  no 
tincture  of  modern  Nationalism  in  his  veins.  He  was  a  land- 
lover,  as  his  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors  and  his  remote  ancestors 
away  back  in  the  German  forests,  had  been.  The  Norman 
strain  in  his  blood  made  him  desire  to  hold  his  land  in  abso- 
lute possession  in  fee  simple. 


26  IX    LYNN    WOODS. 


On  another  matter,  too,  he  differed  from  modern  agitators,, 
who  propose  to  divide  the  earnings  of  the  thrifty  with  the 
idlers  every  Saturday  night.  The  more  a  man  had  acquired 
by  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  by  the  toil  of  his  sons,  the  more  he 
received  in  the  new  allotment. 

This  is  the  plan  adopted  by  the  committee  of  the  town  in 
the  old-fashioned  days,  when  habits  of  industry  and  thrift 
were  recognized  as  virtues  : 

"  We  first  obtained  of  the  Selectmen  of  said  Lynn,  a  copy 
of  the  List  of  Estate  taken  by  them  in  1705,  which  list 
being  first  perfected  and  made  intelligible  to  us  by  the 
Selectmen,  through  our  desire,  by  their  bringing  each  per- 
son's land  to  the  right  owner,  and  by  adding  such  to  said 
List,  that  by  Reason  of  poverty,  or  others  being  in  captivity,, 
had  been  left  out  of  said  List,  that  soe  we  might  come  to  the 
knowledge  of  all  the  proprietors  and  Inhabitants  that  have 
Lands  of  theire  owne  in  fee ;  we  having  made  division  of 
the  aforesaid  Common  Lands  according  to  what  each  pro- 
prietor and  Inhabitant  have  of  Lands  upon  said  List." 

The  only  common  pasturage  remaining  in  Lynn  later  than 
1706,  was  Rocks  Pasture,  now  our  attractive  Highlands. 

It  sounds  oddly,  but  it  is  true,  that  these  remote  hills  and 
valleys  were  better  known,  more  frequented,  and  of  more 
pecuniary  benefit  to  the  early  generations  of  Colonial  Lynnr 
than  they  are  to  our  urban  people  of  to-day. 

These  sombre  woods  have  had  three  periods  of  usefulness. 
First,  in  the  planting  era,  down  to  1706,  they  furnished 
pasturage  and  timber,  food  and  shelter  to  the  village.  In 
the  second  period,  covering  a  town  life,  shifting  from  the 
pastoral  to  mechanical  pursuits,  they  were  still  useful,  but 
restricted  to  furnishing  fuel  to  the  inhabitants. 


WALLS    AND    PASTURES.  27 

As  time  went  on,  and  cheap  coal  came  in,  with  ever  ad- 
vancing density  of  population,  it  seemed  as  if  the  slaughter- 
ing brick-maker  and  the  incendiary  fire  fiend  would  render 
the  woods  a  desolation,  a  desert,  and  a  menace  to  oar  fair 
town. 

But  lo !  the  third  use  dawns  upon  us.  We  had  grown  to 
be  a  city.  The  complex  modern  life  requires  pure  water. 
Science  with  its  witch-hazel  rod  indicates  its  abundance 
about  the  springs  where  the  old  Puritans'  cattle  had  de- 
tected it  centuries  before.  There  a  great  pond  of  sparkling 
water  is  reared.  It  follows  that  the  water-shed  must  be 
protected.  Lovers  of  the  woods  meet  with  municipal  liber- 
ality, and  the  pastures  enter  upon  the  broader  and  higher 
function  of  furnishing  the  Lynn  of  the  future  with  water, 
oxygen,  and  restful  spaces. 

The  fathers,  with  their  Aryan  ways,  their  patient  oxen, 
and  their  daemon  wolves,  have  gone ;  the  woods,  which  they 
used  first  in  common,  then  in  severalty,  the  walls,  which  tes- 
tify to  their  energy,  and  the  wolf  pits,  which  note  their  skill 
in  masonry,  are  being  restored  to  the  common  inheritance 
of  their  children's  children. 


DUNGEON    ROCK. 


TO  THE  people  of  modern  Lynn,  until  a  compara- 
tively recent  date,  Dungeon  Rock  has  been  the 
ultima  thule,  beyond  which  was  the  unknown  wilder- 
ness. Tradition,  romance  and  credulity  have  made  Dungeon 
Rock  famous  beyond  our  borders.  To  it  the  steps  of  citizens 
and  travelers  have  long  been  attracted.  As  a  show  place, 
it  excelled  High  Rock  or  the  home  of  Moll  Pitcher.  Two 
phases  of  the  Rock's  story  have  been  so  well  told  that  no 
attempt  will  be  here  made  to  improve.  The  legendary 
account  will  be  given  in  the  language  of  Alonzo  Lewis,  who, 
as  a  child,  imbibed  with  his  mother's  milk,  the  traditions  of 
old  Lynn.  Under  date  1658,  Mr.  Lewis  writes: 

"  This  year  there  was  a  great  earthquake  in  New  England, 
connected  with  which  is  the  following  story:  Some  time 
previous,  on  a  pleasant  evening,  a  little  after  sunset,  a  small 
vessel  was  seen  to  anchor  near  the  mouth  of  Saugus  River. 
A  boat  was  presently  lowered  from  her  side,  into  which  four 
men  descended  and  moved  up  the  river  a  considerable  dis- 
tance, when  they  landed,  and  proceeded  directly  into  the 
woods.  They  had  been  noticed  by  only  a  few  individuals ; 
but  in  those  early  times,  when  the  people  were  surrounded 
by  danger,  and  easily  susceptible  of  alarm,  such  an  incident 
was  well  calculated  to  awaken  suspicion,  and  in  the  course 
of  the  evening  the  intelligence  was  conveyed  to  many 
houses.  In  the  morning,  the  people  naturally  directed  their 

(28) 


DUNGEON   ROCK.  29 


eyes  towards  the  shore,  in  search  of  the  strange  vessel,  but 
she  was  gone,  and  no  trace  could  be  found  either  of  her  or 
her  singular  crew.  It  was  afterward  ascertained  that,  on 
that  morning,  one  of  the  men  at  the  iron  works,  on  going 
into  the  foundry,  discovered  a  paper,  on  which  was  written, 
that  if  a  quantity  of  shackles,  handcuffs,  hatchets,  and  other 
articles  of  iron  manufacture,  were  made  and  deposited,  with 
secrecy,  in  a  certain  place  in  the  woods,  which  was  particu- 
larly designated,  an  amount  of  silver,  to  their  full  value, 
would  be  found  in  their  place.  The  articles  were  made  in  a 
few  days,  and  placed  in  conformity  with  the  directions.  On 
the  next  morning  they  were  gone,  and  the  money  was  found 
according  to  the  promise;  but,  though  a  watch  had  been 
kept,  no  vessel  was  seen. 

"  Some  months  afterward,  the  four  men  returned,  and 
selected  one  of  the  most  secluded  and  romantic  spots  in  the 
woods  of  Saugus  for  their  abode.  The  place  of  their  retreat 
was  a  deep,  narrow  valley,  shut  in  on  two  sides  by  high  hills 
and  craggy,  precipitous  rocks,  and  shrouded  on  the  others  by 
thick  pines,  hemlocks  and  cedars,  between  which  there  was 
only  one  small  spot  to  which  the  rays  of  the  sun,  at  noon, 
could  penetrate.  On  climbing  up  the  rude  and  almost  per- 
pendicular steps  of  the  rock  on  the  eastern  side,  the  eye 
could  command  a  full  view  of  the  bay  on  the  south,  and  a 
prospect  of  a  considerable  portion  of  the  surrounding  coun- 
try. The  place  of  their  retreat  has  ever  since  been  called 
the  Pirates'  Glen,  and  they  could  not  have  selected  a  spot 
on  the  coast,  for  many  miles,  more  favorable  for  the  purposes, 
both  of  concealment  and  observation.  Even  at  this  day, 
when  the  neighborhood  has  become  thickly  peopled,  it  is 
still  a  lonely  and  desolate  place,  and  probably  not  one  in  a 
hundred  of  the  inhabitants  has  ever  descended  into  its  silent 
and  gloomy  recess.  There  the  pirates  built  a  small  hut, 
made  a  garden,  and  dug  a  well,  the  appearance  of  which  is 
still  visible.  It  has  been  supposed  that  they  buried  money ; 
but  though  people  have  dug  there,  and  in  several  other 


30  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


places,  none  has  ever  been  found.  After  residing  there 
some  time,  their  retreat  became  known,  and  one  of  the 
king's  cruisers  appeared  on  the  coast.  They  were  traced  to 
the  glen,  and  three  of  them  were  taken  and  carried  to  Eng- 
land, where  it  is  probable  they  were  executed.  The  other, 
whose  name  was  Thomas  Veal,  escaped  to  a  rock  in  the 
woods,  about  two  miles  to  the  north,  in  which  was  a  spacious 
cavern,  where  the  pirates  had  previously  deposited  some  of 
their  plunder.  There  the  fugitive  fixed  his  residence,  and 
practised  the  trade  of  a  shoemaker,  occasionally  coming  down 
to  the  village  to  obtain  articles  of  sustenance.  He  con- 
tinued his  residence  till  the  great  earthquake  this  year,  when 
the  top  of  the  rock  was  loosened,  and  crushed  down  into  the 
mouth  of  the  cavern,  enclosing  the  unfortunate  inmate  in 
its  unyielding  prison.  It  has  ever  since  been  called  the 
Pirate's  Dungeon." 

The  connection  of  Hiram  Marble  may  well  be  related  by 
James  R.  Newhall,  the  faithful  annalist  of  Lynn,  who  penned 
it  as  related  to  him  by  the  veteran  enthusiast.  [From  1864 
edition  of  the  History  of  Lynn  :] 

It  was  in  1852,  that  Mr.  Marble  purchased  from  the  City 
of  Lynn  a  lot  of  woodland  in  which  the  Dungeon  Rock  is 
.situated.  He  came  hither,  a  stranger,  enticed  by  alleged 
clairvoyant  revelations,  and  immediately  commenced  the 
laborious  task  of  excavation.  And  he  has  continued  to  ply 
the  ponderous  drills  and  rending  blasts  for  these  twelve 
years  with  a  courage  and  faith  almost  sublime.  His  faith 
surely  has  not  been  without  works  nor  his  courage  barren 
of  results.  And  centuries  hence,  if  his  name  and  identity 
should  be  lost,  the  strange  labor  may  be  referred  to  some 
recluse  cy clops  who  had  strayed  hither  from  mystic  lands. 
The  rock  is  of  very  hard  porphyry,  and  the  work  has  been 
.so  extremely  uncomfortable  and  hazardous,  that  very  few 


DUNGEON    ROCK.  31 


would  have  persisted  in  it.  The  course  of  the  excavation 
is  irregular,  and  such  as  a  sensible  mortal  might  avoid,  as 
involving  great  waste  of  labor.  But  it  is  declared  to  be 
pursued  under  spiritual  direction,  the  unseen  superintendents 
—  the  redoubtable  Veal  among  the  rest  —  being  constantly 
at  hand  to  direct  where  a  blast  should  be  made.  As  it  can 
readily  be  believed  that  no  mortal  would  give  such  apparently 
erratic  directions,  spiritual  interposition  may  as  well  be  re- 
ferred to  for  an  explanation. 

Mr.  Marble  is  a  man  by  no  means  deficient  in  intelligence ; 
and  he  is  an  energetic  and  persevering  enthusiast  —  just 
such  a  person  as  often  accomplishes  great  things,  either  di- 
rectly or  indirectly.  He  is  of  medium  size,  has  a  bright, 
quick  eye,  and  wears  a  flowing  beard,  of  sandy  hue,  which 
•does  not  always  bear  evidence  of  having  immediately  been 
under  the  restraining  discipline  of  a  comb.  He  is  communi- 
cative, and  in  his  conversation  there  runs  a  pleasant  vein  of 
jocularity.  He  is  now  verging  upon  old  age,  and  his  health 
has  become  somewhat  impaired,  probably  through  the  se- 
verity of  his  labors  in  that  damp,  dark  cavern.  He  is  ready 
to  converse  on  his  pjans,  fears,  and  hopes ;  and  with  great 
good  nature,  and  some  times  with  an  apparently  keen  relish, 
alludes  to  the  jeers  and  taunts  of  those  who  seem  disposed 
to  rank  him  with  lunatics.  It  is  refreshing  to  observe  his 
faith  and  perseverance,  and  impossible  not  to  conclude  that 
he  derives  real  satisfaction  and  enjoyment  from  his  under- 
taking. He  informs  me  that  the  spirit  of  Mr.  Lewis  has 
appeared,  and  through  a  writing  medium  endeavored  to 
cheer  him  by  words  of  approval  and  promise.  That  being 
the  case,  Mr.  Lewis  must  surely  have  changed  his  sentiments 
since  he  left  this  world,  for  he  was  greatly  incensed  against 
those  who  laid  their  destroying  hands  upon  the  interesting 
objects  of  nature  within  our  borders.  And  the  reader,  by 
referring  to  the  first  paragraph  under  date  1834,  will  see 
how  indignantly  he  has  expressed  himself  in  regard  to  former 
attempts  on  the  integrity  of  this  very  rock.  The  hope  of 


32  IJSI    LYNN    WOODS. 


finding  hidden  treasure  has  been  the  incentive  to  labors  here, 
on  a  small  scale,  in  former  years  ;  and  it  is  presumed  that 
Mr.  Marble  would  not  disclaim  a  kindred  motive  in  his  ex- 
traordinary application  ;  secondary,  perhaps,  to  a  due  anxiety 
"  to  establish  a  great  truth." 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1863  the  passage  excavated  had 
reached  a  hundred  and  thirty-five  feet,  and  was  of  the  aver- 
age height  and  width  of  seven  feet.  Mr.  Marble  —  who,  by 
the  way  is  a  native  of  Charlton,  in  Worcester  county,  and 
was  born  in  1803 — when  he  undertook  the  labor  had  about 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  which  he  devoted  to  the  enterprise ; 
and  that  fund  being  exhausted,  he  has  for  the  last  eight 
years  received  his  support  and  been  enabled  to  continue  his 
work,  by  the  donations  of  visitors.  He  is  accustomed,  when- 
ever in  doubt  as  to  the  course  he  should  pursue,  to  apply  for 
spiritual  direction,  and  seldom  or  never  conceives  his  appli- 
cation to  be  in  vain.  The  following  may  be  given  as  a  fair 
specimen  of  his  singular  correspondence,  the  originals  being 
at  hand  while  we  write.  And  that  he  has  perfect  confidence 
in  them  as  genuine  communications  from  disembodied  spirits 
is  beyond  question.  The  manner  in  which  he  conducts  his 
unique  correspondence,  may  be  illustrated  by  explaining  the 
way  in  which  the  communication  from  Veal  was  obtained. 
He  states  that  he  wrote  the  request  in  this  form : 

"I  wish  Veal  or  Harris  would  tell  what  move  to  make  next." 

He  wrote  it  in  a  room,  while  entirely  alone,  and  folded  the 
paper  in  such  a  manner  that  the  writing  was  covered  by 
fifteen  thicknesses.  The  medium  was  then  called,  and 
merely  feeling  of  the  exterior  of  the  folded  paper,  took  a 
pencil  and  wrote  what  the  spirit  of  Veal  gave,  through  him, 
as  the  response.  The  one  called  Captain  Harris  is  supposed 
to  have  been  the  leader  of  the  piratical  band. 

RESPONSE  OF  VEAL:  "My  dear  charge:  You  solicit  me  or  Captain 
Harris  to  advise  you  as  to  what  to  next  do.  Well,  as  Harris  says  he  has 
always  the  heft  of  the  load  on  his  shoulders,  I  will  try  and  respond 


.DUNGEON   EOCK.  33 


myself,  and  let  Harris  rest.  Ha !  ha!  Well,  Marble,  we  must  joke  a  bit; 
did  we  not  we  should  have  the  blues,  as  do  you,  some  of  those  rainy 
days,  when  you  see  no  living  person  at  the  rock  save  your  own  dear  ones. 
Not  a  sound  do  you  hear  save  the  woodpecker  and  that  little  gray  bird,  [a 
domesticated  canary,]  that  sings  all  the  day  long,  more  especially  wet 
days,  tittry,  tittry,  tittry,  all  day  long.  But  Marble,  as  Long  [a  deceased 
friend  of  Mr.  Marble,  spoken  of  below,]  says,  don't  be  discouraged.  We 
are  doing  as  fast  as  we  can.  As  to  the  course,  you  are  in  the  right  direc- 
tion, at  present.  You  have  one  more  curve  to  make,  before  you  take  the 
course  that  leads  to  the  cave.  We  have  a  reason  for  keeping  you  from 
entering  the  cave  at  once.  Moses  was  by  the  Lord  kept  forty  years  in 
his  circuitous  route,  ere  he  had  sight  of  that  land  which  flowed  with  milk 
and  honey.  God  had  his  purpose  in  so  doing,  notwithstanding  he  might 
have  led  Moses  into  the  promise  in  a  very  few  days  from  the  start.  But 
no ;  God  wanted  to  develop  a  truth,  and  no  faster  than  the  minds  of  the 
people  were  prepared  to  receive  it.  Cheer  up,  Marble ;  we  are  with  you 
and  doing  all  we  can. 

Your  guide, 

TOM  VEAL." 

It  seems  proper  to  present  another  illustration  of  this  sin- 
gular phase  of  human  credulity ;  and  we  give  one  that 
purports  to  come  from  the  spirit  of  the  Mr.  Long,  who  is 
alluded  to  in  the  response  of  Veal,  and  who  died  in  1851. 
He  was  a  man  of  good  character,  and  a  steadfast  friend  of 
Mr.  Marble.  One  of  the  most  suspicious  things,  in  our  view, 
concerning  him  is,  that  going  out  of  this  world  with  an  un- 
tarnished reputation,  and  with  the  seal  of  good  orthodox 
church  membership,  he  should  so  soon  be  found  concerting 
with  pirates  to  allure  his  old  friend  into  labors  so  severe  and 
unfruitful.  The  rhetorical  flourish  about  millions  of  years, 
near  the  close,  would  be  thought  weakening,  did  it  come 
from  a  mortal.  The  Edwin  alluded  to  is  Mr.  Marble's  son, 
who  has  faithfully  borne  a  heavy  share  in  the  operations, 
and  is,  if  possible,  a  more  confirmed  spiritualist  than  his 
father. 

REQUEST  OF  MR.  MARBLE:  "  Friend  Long,  I  want  you  to  advise  me 
what  to  do." 

RESPONSE  OF  LONG:  "My  dear  Marble,  I  have  nothing  to  advise 
above  what  Captain  Veal  and  Harris  have  already  advised.  We  act  in 


34  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


concert  in  everything  given  you.  I  am  aware  you  feel  not  discouraged : 
but  you  feel  that  after  ten  years'  hard  labor,  you  should  have  had  more 
encouragement  than  you  have  seemingly  had.  But,  dear  one,  we  have 
done  the  most  we  could  for  you,  and  though  we  may  be  slow  to  advise 
you  in  reference  to  that  which  your  highest  ambition  seems  to  be  —  the 
establishment  of  a  TRUTH  which  but  few  comparatively  now  credit,  or 
cannot  believe,  from  the  grossness  of  their  minds.  But,  Marble,  you 
have  done  a  work  that  will  tell,  when  you  shall  be  as  I  am.  The  names 
of  Hiram  and  Edwin  Marble  will  live  when  millions  of  years  shall  from 
this  time  have  passed,  and  when  even  kings  and  statesmen  shall  have 
been  forgotten.  The  names  of  Hiram  Marble  and  Dungeon  Rock  shall 
be  fresh  on  the  memories  of  the  inhabitants  that  then  exist.  What  shall 
you  do?  seems  to  be  the  question.  Follow  your  own  calculations  or  im- 
pressions, for  they  are  right. 

Yours  as  ever, 


These  curious  communications  are  introduced  for  more 
than  one  purpose.  They  show  something  of  the  kind  of 
encouragement  Mr.  Marble  receives  in  his  arduous  labors. 
And  they  likewise  show  something  of  modern  spiritualism, 
which  now  prevails  to  some  extent  throughout  the  civilized 
world.  Lynn  has  had  a  good  share  of  believers,  some  of 
whom  were  among  the  intelligent  and  refined.  It  will  be 
observed  that  the  orthography  and  mode  of  expression  in 
the  response  of  Veal,  who,  if  he  were  ever  in  this  world,  was 
here  in  1658,  are  in  the  style  of  the  present  day.  This 
might  give  rise,  in  a  critical  mind,  to  a  strong  suspicion. 
Indeed  it  is  not  easily  explained  excepting  on  the  supposi- 
tion that  the  medium,  after  all,  acts  himself,  in  part  —  and 
if  so,  in  how  great  a  part  ?  —  or  the  supposition  that  the 
spirits  of  the  departed  are  enabled  to  continue  on  in  the 
progressive  learning  of  this  sphere ;  or  by  taking  a  bolder 
sweep  and  at  once  awarding  to  the  spirits  the  attribute  of 
omniscience.  There  are  difficulties  in  the  way  of  reasoning 
in  such  matters,  because  they  lie  in  that  mystic  province 
into  which  no  human  vision  can  penetrate  —  where  the  va- 
grant imagination  so  often  revels  undisturbed.  And  then 
again,  the  allusion  to  sacred  things,  in  Veal's  response,  does 


DUNGEON    ROCK.  35 


not  seem  in  exact  accordance  with  the  character  of  an  aban- 
doned outlaw. 

Spiritualism,  however,  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Marble,  seems 
to  have  been  productive  of  good.  He  states  that  he  was 
formerly  an  unmitigated  infidel,  having  no  sort  of  belief  in 
man's  immortality.  Even  for  some  time  after  he  commenced 
his  labors  at  Dungeon  Rock,  he  clung  to  his  frigid  principles. 
And  it  was  not  till  after  repeated  exhibitions  of  what  he  was 
forced  to  receive  as  spiritual  manifestations  around  him,  that 
his  old  opinions  began  to  loosen.  To  minds  constituted  es- 
sentially like  that  of  Mr.  Marble,  and  there  are  a  great 
many,  the  doctrines  of  spiritualism  must  commend  them- 
selves as  fond  realities ;  and  they  bringing  consolation  and 
trust.  And  they  are  doctrines  which,  under  different  names 
and  forms  have  existed  ever  since  the  world  began.  It  must 
be  a  strong  incentive  that  could  induce  a  man  to  quit  the 
ordinary  pursuits  of  life,  and  take  up  his  abode  in  a  lonely 
forest,  as  Mr.  Marble  has  done,  there  devoting  years  to  the 
severest  toil,  and  undergoing  so  many  and  great  priva- 
tions. 

In  a  late  conversation,  Mr.  Marble  expressed  a  desire  that 
the  facts  regarding  his  enterprise  might  be  stated  in  this 
history,  to  the  end  that  the  people  of  future  generations 
might  have  some  data  by  which  to  judge  concerning  the  pre- 
tentious of  the  spiritualists  of  this  period ;  saying  that  if  he 
should  discover,  somewhere  in  the  interior  of  that  hill  of 
rock,  a  cave  containing  treasure,  arid  evidences  of  ancient 
occupancy,  all  according  to  the  lavish  assurances  he  has  been 
daily  receiving  from  the  spirit  host,  the  truths  of  spiritualism 
will  be  considered  most  strongly  fortified,  if  not  established. 
There  is  wisdom  and  fairness  in  this.  And  on  the  other 
hand,  failure  will  teach  a  useful  lesson,  a  lesson  that  will 
remain  before  the  eyes  of  men  so  long  as  the  rock  itself  en- 
dures. In  either  event,  the  Dungeon  Rock  is  destined  to  be 
forever  famous ;  to  remain  a  monument  of  irrational  cre- 
dulity or  triumphant  faith. 


36  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


On  May  Day,  1864,  a  callow  youngter  visited  the  cave, 
having  as  a  guide  the  senior  Mr.  Marble.  He  recorded  his 
impressions  in  the  columns  of  a  paper  published  in  a  neigh- 
boring city.  The  time  was  the  period  of  Mr.  Marble's 
greatest  activity,  and  while  the  style  may  by  critics  be 
deemed  sophomorical,  the  description  is  earnest ;  hence  we 
venture  to  reprint  a  portion : 

"  This  spot,  with  the  romantic  interest  connected  with  it, 
has  had  a  place  of  local  importance  in  Lynn  history  from  the 
earliest  times.  It  is  only  within  the  last  fifteen  years  that 
it  has  possessed  its  present  notoriety.  In  the  cave  beneath 
this  rock  dwelt  (according  to  tradition)  Tom  Veal,  sole  sur- 
vivor of  the  pirate  crew.  Down  in  the  glen,  towards 
meandering  Saugus  River,  lie  the  remains  of  the  fair  girl 
whom  the  pirates  brought  with  them  and  murdered.  Veal 
thought  himself  not  secure  in  this  retreat,  but  sought  Dun- 
geon Rock,  deeper  in  the  woods  —  more  secluded  from 
human  eyes.  Nor  along  the  whole  coast  could  a  more  fitting 
place  be  chosen  by  a  man  who  hated  or  feared  society.  A 
bold  rock  rises  from  the  highest  elevation  in  the  vicinity. 
From  its  summit,  then,  boundless  visions  of  pine  woods  met 
the  eye  —  to  the  North,  to  the  East,  and  to  the  West.  In 
the  foreground,  far  off  in  the  hazy  horizon,  was  the  blue, 
loved  Atlantic.  The  heart  of  the  caged  rover  must  have 
often  threatened  to  burst  its  confines,  as  his  wistful  eyes 
glanced  upon  the  solitary  sail  that  in  those  days  rarely 
whitened  the  trackless  ocean.  As  he  stood  alone  on  this 
cliff,  naught  of  humanity  disturbed  his  meditations.  Alone 
with  God  and  Nature,  this  man  must  have  reflected  upon 
the  past ;  memory's  chain  bound  him  to  his  deeds,  evil  and 
unfit  for  companionship  though  they  were.  Here  he  lived 
and  died.  He  died  no  man  knows  how  —  not  by  disease  or 
old  age,  but  by  a  convulsion  of  Nature ;  an  earthquake 
closed  the  mouth  of  the  cave  forever,  and  shut  in  Tom  Veal 


DUNGEON    ROCK.  37 


and  his  fabulous  riches  from  the  sight  of  inquisitive  mortals. 
Did  he  die  in  the  cave  amidst  the  pilfered  booty  of  foreign 
climes?  Unanswered  query. 

"  Years  rolled  away ;  the  everlasting  tomb  gave  not  up  its 
dead.  But  modern  Spiritualism  arose,  and  one  of  its  con- 
verts, Hiram  Marble,  a  moonstruck  man  of  erratic  genius, 
found  his  way  to  the  place.  Under  the  guidance  of  the 
spirit  of  the  defunct  pirate-hermit,  Veal,  he  attempted  to 
force  his  way  into  the  adamantine  mausoleum.  With  dogged 
perseverence,  worthy  of  a  better  cause,  he  has  blasted  into 
that  rock  of  unyielding,  solid  porphry,  a  vast  cavern.  Fifteen 
years  of  his  life  has  the  man  already  spent  in  the  herculean 
task.  He  has  gone  into  the  very  bowels  of  earth,  blasting 
his  way  with  powder  and  drill.  To  lovers  of  the  marvelous, 
there  is  not  a  place  in  old  Massachusetts  which  will  so  richly 
repay  the  tramp,  required  in  attaining  the  satisfaction  of 
curiosity,  as  Dungeon  Rock  and  its  surroundings.  As  we 
stand  upon  the  bold,  firm  rock,  it  is  impossible  to  realize  the 
existence,  beneath  us,  of  a  vast  excavation  of  human  hands, 
and  to  imagine  the  yet  unfound,  mysterious  cave  of  Nature, 
which  still  baffles  man's  ingenuity,  and  holds  in  its  unrelent- 
ing grasp  mingled  human  dust  and  base  gold.  Leaving  the 
summit  of  the  rock  for  the  present,  we  descend  into  Avernus 
—  or  Marble's  Cave.  The  entrance  is  through  a  chasm  or 
fissure  in  the  rock.  Taking  a  last  look  at  the  sun,  we  con- 
front the  blank  mass  of  stone  wall.  We  discover  a  black 
hole  at  our  feet ;  here  begins  man's  work.  We  see  nothing 
but  somber,  gloomy,  dimly-outlined  blackness;  our  guide, 
however,  ventures  boldly  on  with  his  flickering  torch.  We 
follow,  and  our  feet  are  on  a  flight  of  wooden  stairs  —  not  a 
headlong  plunge  after  all ;  now  we  reach  the  bottom  of  wood, 
and  grope  on,  with  the  eternal  petrifaction  of  earth  and  fire 
all  around  us.  Deeper  and  deeper  we  go  into  the  yawning 
abyss  —  turning  now  to  the  right,  now  to  the  left,  we  leave 
behind  us  the  heaven-given  breeze  of  the  outer  world,  and 
breathe  the  confined  air  of  the  lower  regions.  On  we  go  for 


38  IN    LYNN    WOODS. 


several  rods,  the  cavern  now  contracting  in  dimensions,  now 
expanding,  until  finally  we  reach  —  not  the  bottomless  pit  — 
but  the  bottom  of  the  pit.  Standing  on  a  pile  of  rent  rock, 
we  listen  to  the  gray -bearded  man's  story,  his  tale  of  fanat- 
icism.  In  the  wall,  whichever  way  we  turn,  we  discover 
evidence  of  the  indomitable  struggle  between  man  and 
matter,  smeared  all  over  with  powder,  and  ornamented  with 
the  edgings  of  small,  fine-grained  drill-holes,  and  smelling 
ominously  sulphurous.  In  one  corner,  a  pool  of  murky 
water  pines  in  silent  discontent ;  but  the  jagged,  overhang- 
ing, jutting,  projecting  points  frown  upon  us,  and  who  knows 
but  they  may  block  our  entrance,  and  seal  us  up  in,  not  a 
hermetical  sack,  but  an  escapeless  prison.  So  we  hurry 
once  more  to  the  surface,  and  inhale  the  pure  atmosphere, 
with  an  enhanced  delight  from  our  short  deprivation.  A 
soul-expanding  vision  meets  the  eye,  as  we  look  down  upon 
the  world  from  the  base  of  the  flag-staff.  The  day  is  fine, 
only  a  slight  east  wind  being  an  unpleasant  reminder  of 
New  England  rawness.  The  primeval  forests,  which  the 
pirate  gazed  upon,  have  fallen.  A  city  has  grown  up  betwixt 
the  sea  and  the  rock ;  but  rugged  hills,  covered  with  rocks 
and  innocent  of  soil,  and  warm,  smiling  valleys  abound, 
while,  like  the  eyes  in  a  human  face,  two  beautiful,  silver 
lakes  nestle  between  the  hills,  and  to-day  gleam  in  the  glad 
sunlight. " 

On  the  sheltered  southwestern  slope  of  the  Rock  stands  a 
boulder,  which  serves  as  a  headstone  for  the  grave  of  Edwin 
Marble,  son  of  the  original  excavator.  The  enclosure  about 
the  place  of  sepulcher  is  made  of  jagged  clippings,  blasted 
from  the  walls  of  the  cavern,  and  brought  to  the  surface  by 
the  hands  of  the  indomitable  man  who  elected  that  the 
earthly  part  of  him  should  mingle  with  the  soil  of  the  spot 
where  his  life's  labor  was  fought  out. 


DUNGEON   ROCK.  39 


Hiram  Marble  died  at  his  home  by  the  rock,  November 
10,  1868.  Edwin  Marble  died  January  16,  1880.  Since 
that  time,  no  one  by  act  has  challenged  the  secrets  of  the 
place.  Later  the  Trustees  of  the  Forest  obtained  possession 
of  the  rock,  and  here  the  friends  of  the  forest  held  an 
early  camp  day  on  Memorial  Day,  1888,  and  performed  the 
prescribed  service  of  the  forest  for  dedication  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  goodly  company  of  lovers  of  the  woods. 

Since  the  Trustees  of  the  Forest  released  their  title, 
an  odd  group  of  buildings,  used  by  the  Marbles  and  their 
successors  as  a  residence  and  as  a  museum  of  spiritual 
curiosities,  has  been  demolished  by  direction  of  the  Park 
Commissioners. 

Other  places  in  the  woods  may  compete  with  Dungeon 
Rock  on  matters  of  vista,  of  beauty  of  grove,  of  rugged 
wildness,  but  its  history  and  traditions  touch  such  delicate 
chords  of  human  interest,  that  it  will  always  possess  a 
greater  sentimental  attraction  than  any  other  spot  within  our 
limits.  Its  time-old  keep  stands  guard  over  the  approach  to 
the  woods  from  the  south.  From  being  remote,  it  has  be- 
come the  gate  by  which  travelers  enter  into  our  sylvan  won- 
derland. Dungeon  Rock  is  the  keystone  to  the  grand  arch 
of  our  temple  of  Nature. 


TOMLINS'    SWAMP.     A  CONSERVATOR  OF 

OLD  NAMES. 


PIONEERS'  names  have  a  trick  of  fixing  themselves 
to  localities  with  varying  tenacity  and  importance. 
The  three  Lynn  members  of  the  First  Representative 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  1634  were  Nathaniel 
Turner,  Thomas  Willis  and  Edward  Tomlins.  Captain 
Turner  wandered  away  to  the  Connecticut,  and  Turner's 
Falls  preserves  his  name.  Thomas  Willis  gave  his  name 
to  a  hill,  a  neck'and  a  meadow.  Tower  Hill,  however,  has 
superseded  the  old  planter's  surname.  The  third  old 
worthy's  name  is  perpetuated  in  that  tangled  labyrinth 
of  wild  woodland,  lying  in  the  Lynn  forest,  between  Mount 
Gilead  and  Birch  Pond,  and  known  to  this  day  as  Tomlins' 
Swamp. 

The  use  to  which  these  lands  are  being  put  promises  to 
give  Tomlins'  name  an  immortality,  which  his  services  and 
famity  would  have  failed  to  accomplish.  A  seeming  trifle 
sends  a  commonplace  name  down  through  the  centuries. 
Farmer  Tomlins'  ax-blows  break  the  stillness  of  the  primeval 
wilderness,  the  giant  tree  crashes  to  earth,  his  patient  oxen 
drag  their  burden  out  of  the  shades  that  he  may  fashion  it 
into  his  rude  cabin,  and  so  a  path  is  made  through  which 
eight  or  nine  generations  of  woodsmen  and  naturalists  have 

(40) 


TOMLINS'   SWAMP.  41 


followed,  and  now  his  name  is  woven  into  the  grandest  nat- 
ural forest  reservation  of  municipal  creation  in  our  land. 

The  rambler  through  our  sylvan  resort,  who  is  still  in 
touch  with  his  kind,  and  curious  to  know  something  of  the 
white  men  who  first  invaded  this  ancient  home  of  wild  fowl, 
of  fox,  and  of  wolf,  and  blazed  their  names  upon  its  localities 
may  ask,  "  Who  was  Tomlins  ?  "     There  were  two  Tomlins, 
brothers.     Captain  Edward  Tomlins  took  the  freeman's  oath 
in  the  first  list,  May  18,  1631.     He  received  a  large  grant 
of  two  hundred  and  twenty  acres  in  the  first  division  of  land 
in  1638.      Edward,  as  already  mentioned,  was  one  of  the 
first  deputies  of  Lynn  in  the   General  Court.     With  his 
brother  Timothy,  the  Tomlins  represented  Lynn  for  thirteen 
terms.     In  1634,  the  colony  appointed  him  keeper  of  ord- 
nance.    In  the  same  year,  "  It  is  ordered  that  Mr.  Edward 
Tomlyns,  or  any  other  putt  in  his  place,  by  the  commissioners 
for  warr,  with  the  helpe  of  an  assistant,  shall  have  power  to 
presse  men  &  carts  for  ordinary  wages,  to  helpe  towards  the 
making  of  such  carriages  &  wheeles  as  are  wanting  for  the 
ordinances." 

In  1633,  he  built  the  mill  at  the  mouth  of  Strawberry 
Brook,  upon  the  site  of  the  present  Butman's  mill.  In 
1637,  he  was  appointed  cannoneer  of  the  colony.  In  1638, 
he  became  a  charter  member  of  the  Ancient  and  Honorable 
Artillery  Company. 

The  young  colony  was  surrounded  with  perils.  In  1642, 
the  watch  or  garrison  house  was  built  north  of  Vinegar  Hill. 
Gunpowder  was  scarce,  and  the  General  Court  ordered  every 
town  "  to  take  order  that  every  house  or  two  or  more  houses 
to  joyne  together  for  the  breeding  of  salt  peeter,"  for  the 
public  use.  Sergeant  (Edward)  Tomlins  was  appointed  "  to 


42  IN    LYNN    WOODS. 


the  charge  of  looking  to  this  order  "  for  Lynn.  In  1643, 
"  Mr.  Edward  Tomlins  is  appointed  Clarke  of  the  writts  at 
Linn,  in  Mr.  Sadler  his  place."  In  1644,  Captain  Robert 
Bridges,  Ensign  (Edward)  Tomlins  and  Nicholas  Browne 
were  appointed  commissioners  to  end  small  controversies  at 
Lynn. 

Timothy  Tomlins  took  the  freeman's  oath  March  8, 
1632-3.  In  1634,  the  General  Court  appointed  him  overseer 
of  the  powder,  shot,  and  all  other  ammunition  for  the  plan- 
tation. In  the  General  Court  of  1635,  he  served  on  the 
committee  in  the  noted  case  "to  consider  the  act  of  Mr.  En- 
dicott,  in  defacing  the  colors,  &  to  reporte  to  the  Courte 
howe  farr  they  judge  it  censurable."  In  the  General  Court 
of  1636,  and  also  of  1637,  Timothy  Tomlins  was  the  Lynn 
member  of  the  most  important  committee — that  of  valuation. 

And,  let  us  whisper  it  gently  in  these  prohibition  days, 
the  records  of  the  colony  relate  that  at  the  same  session, 
1636,  our  principal  Puritan  legislator,  "  Mr.  Tymothy  Tom- 
lins. is  licensed  to  keepe  a  house  of  entertainment  at 
Saugust."  This  statement  may  conflict  with  Mr.  Lewis,  who 
states  that  Mr.  Armitage  was  the  first  innkeeper  of  the  town, 
but  Mr.  Armitage  did  not  become  a  freeman  until  1637, 
hence  I  conclude  that  Mr.  Deputy  Tomlins  was  first. 

In  1640,  Mr.  Timothy  Tomlins  was  appointed  "  to  set  out 
the  nearest,  cheapest,  safest  and  most  convenient  way  be- 
tween Linn  &  Winnetsemet  (Chelsea)  and  settle  it  accord- 
ingly." This  was  the  old  historic  road,  over  which  Arnold, 
more  than  a  century  later,  marched ;  over  which  Washing- 
ton and  Lafayette  and  the  fathers  of  the  republic  traveled. 
It  was  the  great  highway  from  the  east  to  Boston  till  the 
turnpike  and  railroad  days. 


TOMLIXS'    SWAMP.  43 


The  first  book  of  written  records  on  the  western  continent 
is  called  the  Suffolk  Deeds,  Liber  1,  and  was  authorized  at 
a  General  Court  holden  in  Boston,  September  9,  1639.  The 
record  of  the  vote  is  almost  as  brief  as  was  the  act  of  the 
court  changing  the  name  of  our  plantation  from  Saugus  to 
Lynn.  In  these  few  words  was  our  registry  system  begun : 
"  Mr.  Steven  Winthrop  was  chosen  to  record  things."  In 
this  book,  on  page  twenty-one,  is  recorded  the  protest  of  the 
agent  of  Lord  Sterling,  against  what  he  deemed  an  invasion 
of  his  rights  in  Long  Island.  The  document  is  copied,  as 
showing  the  leadership  of  the  Tomlins  family  in  the  founding 
of  Southampton,  Long  Island,  in  1640.  The  settlement  was 
successfully  made,  but  the  Tomlins  brothers  afterwards  re- 
turned to  Lynn : 

"  Know  all  men  by  these  presents  that  whereas  Edward 
Tomlins  and  Timothy  Tomlins  togither  w'th  one  Hansard 
Knowles  Clercke  &  others  have  latly  entered  and  taken 
possestion  of  some  parte  of  the  longe  Hand  in  New  England, 
wch  was  formerly  granted  by  the  letters  Pattents  of  or 
Sovereine  Lord  Kinge  Charles  to  the  Right  Honorable  Wil- 
liam Earle  of  Sterlinge  and  his  heires :  I  James  fforrett 
gentleman  by  virtue  of  a  Commission  under  the  hand  & 
Scale  of  the  sayd  Earle  to  me  made  for  the  dispossinge  and 
ordiringe  of  the  sayd  longe  Hand,  doe  hereby  protest  &  in- 
timat,  as  well  as  to  the  sayd  Edward  Tomlins  and  others  the 
said  intruders  as  to  all  others  whom  it  may  concerne  that 
neither  they  nor  any  of  them  nor  any  other  person  or  persons 
(not  claiminge  by  or  for  from  the  sayde  Earle)  have  or  shall 
have  or  enjoy  any  lawfull  right,  Title  or  possession  or  in  or 
two  the  sayde  Hand  or  any  parte  thereof  but  that  the  sayde 
Earle  his  heires  or  assignes  may  &  will  at  all  times  when 
they  please  implead  or  elect  either  by  course  of  Law,  or  law 
full  force  if  need  be  all  the  sayde  Intruders  theire  servants, 


IN    LYNN    WOODS. 


Tenants  or  Assignes,  and  may  &  will  recover  against  them 
&  every  of  them  all  damages  and  Costs  in  this  behalfe  sus- 
tained Any  Coler  of  Title  or  pretence  of  Right  by  Grant 
from  the  Government  of  New  Neatherland  or  any  other  not 
withstandinge.  In  testimony  whereof  I  have  mad  and  pub- 
lished this  protest  and  intimation  before  John  Winthrop  one 
of  the  Magistrates  and  Counsell  of  the  Massachusetts  in 
New  England  aforesayde  and  have  desired  that  the  same 
may  be  recorded  there  and  in  other  Jurisdiction  in  those 
parts  and  have  published  and  shewed  the  same  to  the  sayde 
Edward  Tomlins  in  the  presence  of  the  witnesses  under 
named  Dated  at  Boston  twenty  eight  day  of  the  seaventh 
Month :  Anno :  Domini :  1641 :  Anno  regni  Regis  Dom 
Noste  Caroli  Anglic  &c  decimo  septimo. 

"  The  above  named  James  fforrett  gentleman  did  make  this 
Protestation  the  twenty  eight  of  the  said  month  in  the  yeare 
aforesd  att  Boston  in  Massachusetts  aforesd  before  me. 

JO.    WlNTHEOP." 

One  mention  of  Mr.  Tomlins  in  the  colonial  records  illus- 
trates the  Puritan  desire  that  the  inhabitants  should  not 
have  intercourse  with  ungodly  people.  It  also  shows  how 
soon  the  walls  were  broken  down,  which  sought  to  restrain 
the  trading  spirit  of  Englishmen.  On  the  seventh  of  Octo- 
ber, 1641,  "  Mr  Edward  —  &Timo  Tomlins  with  John  Poole 
were  admonished  not  to  go  to  the  Dutch  because  of  scandall 
&  offence." 

These  may  be  meagre  details.  It  requires,  however,  little 
imagination  to  realize  that  these  two  men  were  typical 
pioneers.  That  they  were  held  in  high  esteem  by  their 
townsmen,  who  knew  them  best,  is  plain  from  their  repeated 
elections  to  the  honored  position  of  deputy.  The  duties 
assigned  to  them,  especially  in  the  arming  of  the  infant 


TOMLINS'    SWAMP.  45 


colony,  show  them  to  have  been  discreet  and  wise  men  in 
the  opinion  of  the  leaders  of  the  somewhat  close  communion 
government  of  the  Bay  Colony.  Of  good  education  they 
certainly  were,  for  the  office  of  clerk  of  the  writs  was  the 
most  important  clerical  position  in  the  plantation.  The 
building  of  mills,  the  founding  of  Southampton,  when  Lynn 
was  only  ten  years  old,  the  trading  with  the  Dutch  at  New 
Netherlands,  all  indicate  energy  and  push.  It  stamps  them 
as  leaders  of  the  old  stock  which  broadened  and  developed 
new  vigor  from  contact  with  new  soil. 

The  dictionary  men  describe  a  swamp  as  low  land  filled 
with  water.  Tomlins'  Swamp  is  rather  a  gigantic  vase, 
whose  sloping  walls  are  precious  stones  of  dark  hornblende 
and  gray  sienite,  down  which  innumerable  little  rivulets  of 
sparkling  water  leap  to  vivify  the  garden  of  the  glades. 
Then,  uniting,  the  little  streamlets  become  Penny  Brook, 
and  glide  over  its  mossy  bed,  till  they  hide  themselves  in  the 
placid  bosom  of  Walden  Pond.  Penny  Brook,  so  long  trib- 
utary to  Saugus  River,  now  distributes  its  life-cheering 
current  to  the  houses  of  Lynn.  Our  vase  is  filled  with 
wondrous  results  of  the  alchemy  of  the  elements,  from  the 
stately  evergreen  pine  down  to  the  spotless  white  Indian  pipe 
and  modest  violet  that  spring  from  earth  for  a  few  days,  when 
the  sun's  rays  touch  secluded  nooks  in  early  spring-time. 

What  more  fitting  remembrance  or  monument  could  any 
man  desire  than  to  have  his  name  linked  with  this  region  of 
inexhaustible  treasures  for  every  sense  of  man,  guarded  by 
simple  tradition  through  the  generations  when  the  secrets  of 
the  woods  were  the  delight  of  the  favored  few,  till  now, 
when  the  great  public  are  to  be  admitted,  educated  and 
exalted  by  daily  communion  at  the  shrines  of  Nature. 


46  IX    LYNN    WOODS. 


The  charms  of  this  region  come  almost  wholly  from  the 
fact  that  the  hand  of  man  has  had  so  little  to  do  in  fashion- 
ing them.  As  a  memorial,  as  a  reminder  of  the  sturdy  Pur- 
itan stock,  let  us  of  the  present  keep  man's  vandal  hands 
from  defacing  with  improvements.  Let  us  preserve  it  for 
the  future  to  enjoy  as  a  bit  of  primitive  New  England. 

Let  the  Tomlins'  Swamp  of  the  fathers  flourish  after  Na- 
ture's unrivaled  way. 


BURRILL     HILL. 


WHEN  ONE  stands  upon  a  hill-top  where  the  eye 
traverses  the  circle  and  takes  in  a  range  of  dis- 
tant objects,  it  is  natural  for  the  observer  to  think 
that  his  pivot  is  higher  than  any  other  near-by  location. 

Such  is  the  feeling  when  one  first  sweeps  the  horizon  from 
the  crown  of  Mount  Gilead.  The  blue  hills  of  Milton  are 
seen  beyond  the  peaks,  the  obelisk  and  the  golden  dome  of 
Boston.  The  glittering  waters  and  white  sails  of  the  Bay 
are  in  bold  relief.  Far  off  to  the  north  and  west,  the  dim 
outlines  of  Wachusett  and  Monadnock  break  the  sky  line 
with  their  huge  and  dull  masses.  But  the  eye  looks  in  vain 
to  the  east  towards  the  fair  land  of  Acadia.  . 

The  Atlantic,  whose  waves  break  against  our  headlands 
and  upon  our  beaches,  is  shrouded  from  the  vision.  The 
veil  is  close  at  hand.  Looking  out  over  a  deep  gulf  of  green 
foliage,  towards  the  point  where  Abbot  Hall,  Marblehead, 
or  the  black  smoke  of  eastern  bound  steamers  ought  to  be 
seen,  lies  a  long,  grim  hill,  which  seems  to  be  below  the 
observer's  line  of  vision,  but  which  is  really  higher.  That 
is  the  highest  elevation  in  Lynn  Woods.  It  stands  two 
hundred  and  eighty  feet  above  the  water  line.  Its  charms 
have  been  sung  in  graceful  verse  by  our  prophet  of  the 
woods,  and  consecrated  by  the  Society  of  the  Forest,  under 
the  name  of  Mount  Nebo. 

(47) 


48  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


The  fathers,  however,  had  a  different  name  for  this  fairest 
outlook  —  this  grimmest,  most  awe-inspiring  sentinel  —  this 
unequaled,  unapproached  summit  of  the  woods.  They 
called  it  Burrill  Hill,  and  this  by  decree  of  the  Park  Com- 
mission will  henceforth  be  its  legal  name.  To  people  who 
believe  that  the  Puritan  founders  of  Massachusetts  Bay  were 
intellectually  and  spiritually  in  advance  of  any  people  of 
their  time,  this  recognition  of  the  name  of  one  of  our  first 
settlers  is  appropriate. 

Historians  divide  the  history  of  Massachusetts  into  three 
periods.  The  first  was  the  colonial,  which  had  its  dramatic 
end  in  the  overthrow  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  in  1689.  The 
second  was  the  provincial,  beginning  with  the  charter  of 
William  and  Mary,  in  1692,  and  closing  in  the  immortal 
scenes  of  Lexington  and  Bunker  Hill,  in  1775.  The  third 
begun  with  the  adoption  of  the  State  Constitution,  in  1780. 

The  advent  of  the  Burrill  family  into  Lynn  is  coeval  with 
its  settlement.  George  Burrill,  the  pioneer,  came  from 
England  and  located  on  the  western  side  of  Tower  Hill, 
upon  a  grant  which  indicates  him  as  a  principal  planter.  Of 
him  it  is  sufficient  commendation  to  say  that  he  was  the 
progenitor  of  a  family  whose  several  generations  made  a 
large  part  of  the  annals  of  Lynn  for  a  hundred  years. 

His  son,  John,  called  in  the  records  John  senior,  for  many 
years  a  "  prudential "  or  selectman,  as  such  was  a  party  in 
1686  to  the  famous  Indian  Deed  of  Lynn.  John,  senior,  was 
the  colleague  of  fighting  Parson  Jeremiah  Shepard,  in  the 
troubles  which  grew  out  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros  and  Edward 
Randolph's  attempt  to  steal  Nahant  from  the  inhabitants. 

The  broader  political  activity  of  the  Burrill  family  dates 
from  1691,  the  last  year  of  the  interregnum,  after  the  end 


BURRILL   HILL.  49 


of  the  colonial,  and  before  the  arrival  of  the  provincial 
charter.  It  was  the  last  year  that  the  people  of  Massachu- 
setts chose  their  own  Governor,  down  to  the  time  when  the 
State,  under  its  free  Constitution,  elected  John  Hancock. 

The  venerable  Simon  Bradstreet,  styled  the  Nicias  of  New 
England,  was  Governor.  John  Burrill,  Sr.,  was  Representa- 
tive to  the  Great  and  General  Court.  John  Burrill,  Jr., 
became  Town  Clerk  of  Lynn,  which  office  he  occupied  till 
his  death,  thirty  years  later.  The  town  electing  but  one 
Representative  at  a  time  for  several  years,  father  and  son 
alternated  in  representing  it.  John  Burrill,  Jr.,  was  a  Repre- 
sentative twenty-four  years,  ten  of  which  he  served  as 
Speaker.  From  the  Speakership  he  went  into  the  Council 
of  the  Royal  Governor. 

The  year  1721  was  an  exciting  one.  Very  little  legis- 
lation was  effected.  Governor  Samuel  Shute  and  the  Gen- 
eral Court  were  fighting  one  of  the  hottest  of  the  forensic 
battles,  which  for  many  years  the  people  waged  with  the 
royal  prerogative.  Worse  than  that,  small-pox  raged  in 
Boston  through  the  year.  The  Court  was  adjourned  to  the 
George  Tavern  on  Boston  Neck,  then  to  Harvard  College, 
then  to  the  "Swan  Tavern,  because  of  the  small-pox  near 
the  College."  All  was  in  vain,  so  far  as  the  Honorable  John 
Burrill  was  concerned. 

The  Boston  News-Letter  of  Monday,  December  18,  1721, 
contained  the  following  notice,  under  date,  Lynn,  Dec.  11. 

"  The  last  night  the  Honorable  John  Burrill,  Esq.,  one  of 
His  Majesty's  Council,  and  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Inferior 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  for  the  County  of  Essex,  died  of 
small-pox,  in  the  sixty-second  year  of  his  age.  He  had  been 
for  many  years  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 


50  IN  LYNN   WOODS. 


and  behaved  himself  in  that  chair  with  great  integrity, 
modesty,  and  skill ;  having  a  just  and  equal  regard  to  the 
honor  of  the  government  and  the  liberty  of  the  people ;  so 
that  he  was  highly  esteemed  and  beloved  by  both.  He  was 
a  man  of  true  and  exemplar)*  piety  and  virtue,  endowed  with 
a  very  clear  understanding,  solid  judgment,  and  sound  dis- 
cretion. And  God  made  him  a  great  blessing,  not  only  to 
his  town  and  county,  but  to  the  whole  province.  Isaiah 
iii.  1 :  'For  behold,  the  Lord  God  of  hosts  doth  take  away 
from  Judah  the  stay  and  staff  —  the  Judge  —  and  the  pru- 
dent —  the  honorable  —  and  the  counsellor.' ' 

Governor  Thomas  Hutchinson,  the  historian  of  the  period, 
likens  Mr.  Burrill  to  "  the  right  honorable  person,  who  for  so 
many  years  filled  the  chair  of  the  House  of  Commons  with 
such  applause."  The  Speaker  of  the  Commons  referred  to, 
was  Sir  Arthur  Onslow,  reputed  the  most  accomplished 
parliamentarian  who  ever  presided  in  the  English  House. 
The  Governor  says  that  the  House  "were  as  fond  of  Mr. 
Burrill  as  of  their  eyes  ;  "  and  he  further  records,  "  I  have 
often  heard  his  contemporaries  applaud  him  for  his  great  in- 
tegrity, his  acquaintance  with  parliamentary  forms,  the  dig- 
nity and  authority  with  which  he  filled  the  chair,  the  order 
and  decorum  he  maintained  in  the  debates  of  the  House,  his 
self-denial  in  remaining  in  the  House,  from  year  to  year, 
when  he  might  have  been  chosen  into  the  Council,  and  saw 
others,  who  called  him  their  father,  sent  there  before  him." 

Alonzo  Lewis  writes,  "  He  gained  a  reputation  which  few 
men,  who  have  since  filled  his  stations,  have  surpassed.  The 
purity  of  his  character  and  the  integrity  of  his  life  secured 
to  him  the  warmest  friendship  of  his  acquaintance  and  the 
unlimited  confidence  of  his  native  town.  He  was  affable  in 
his  manners,  and  uniformly  prudent  in  his  conduct.  His 


BTTRRILL   HILL.  51 


disposition  was  of  the  most  charitable  kind,  and  his  spirit 
regulated  by  the  most  guarded  temperance.  He  willingly 
continued  in  the  House  many  years,  when  he  might  have 
been  raised  to  a  more  elevated  office,  and  his  thorough  ac- 
quaintance with  the  forms  of  legislation,  the  dignity  of  his 
deportment,  and  the  order  which  he  maintained  in  debate, 
gave  to  him  a  respect  and  an  influence  which  probably  no 
other  Speaker  of  the  House  ever  obtained." 

Ebenezer  Burrill,  the  younger  brother  of  "the  beloved 
Speaker,"  was  also  a  man  of  mark  in  town  and  colony.  He 
was  a  Representative  six  times,  and  a  member  of  the  Royal 
Governor's  Council  from  1731  to  1746. 

These  brothers  were  the  only  Lynn  men  who  ever  served 
at  the  Council  Board  of  the  Royal  Governor.  From  this 
fact,  probably,  came  the  designation  which  long  attached  to 
the  Burrills  as  "  The  royal  family  of  Lynn."  The  brothers 
were  astute  politicians,  for  they  had  long  public  careers  in 
conspicuous  station,  and  pleased  both  crown  and  people. 

After  them  came  two  other  Burrills,  sons  of  Ebenezer. 
Their  names  were  Ebenezer  and  Samuel.  Ebenezer  was 
Town  Clerk  seventeen  years,  and  Representative  twelve. 
He  was  one  of  "Sam  Adams'  rebels."  His  services  in  the 
General  Court  were  during  the  momentous  years  from  1764 
to  1775,  to  the  very  time  that  saw  the  first  armed  resistance 
to  the  royal  authority.  Samuel  Burrill  had  the  felicity  to 
be  the  Lynn  member  of  the  venerated  Convention  of  1779, 
which  framed  the  State  Constitution,  under  which  we  live 
to-day.  He  served  as  Representative  down  to  1783,  and 
thus  rounded  out  a  full  century  of  eminent  public  service 
by  one  family. 

Lynn  has  inscribed  the  naihes  of  Whiting  and  Gobbet,  its 


52  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


first  pastor  and  teacher,  on  marble.  Upon  a  still  more  en- 
during monument,  its  everlasting  citadel  of  granite,  it  per- 
petuates the  name  of  an  early  family  of  magistrates. 

Nature  fashioned  this  untamable  hill,  which  rears  its  crest 
above  Gilead,  and  Hermon,  and  Spickett,  and  the  lesser  ele- 
vations that  diversify  the  woods,  so  that  only  its  chosen 
votaries,  they  who  are  agile  of  limb,  and  apt  with  the  alpen- 
stock, may  look  upon  its  charms.  The  idler,  the  lame,  and 
the  lazy,  who  would  have  their  sylvan  pleasures  diluted  by 
man's  ingenuity  and  the  horse's  strength,  must  be  content 
with  the  assisted  ascent  of  Gilead. 

Yet  the  most  persistent  climber,  especially  if  he  has 
reached  middle  age,  will  not  disdain  the  aid,  which  a  rustic 
ladder  affords,  in  mounting  the  bowlder  that  rests  upon  the 
hoary  brow  of  the  hill,  like  the  cap  of  a  flamen  of  antiquity. 

Burrill  Hill  is  the  granite  backbone  of  the  woods,  upon 
whose  naked  surface  titanic  agencies  in  prehistoric  ages 
hurled  mighty  bowlders  from  far-off  regions.  This  grandly 
rugged  and  impressive  spot  —  this  holy  of  holies  of  Nature's 
temple  —  ought  not  to  be  profaned  by  vulgar  mobs.  One 
ought  to  come  here  alone  and  worship.  The  face  of  Moses 
shone  when  he  came  down  from  Sinai,  after  receiving  his 
charge  from  the  Lord.  There  is  a  message,  and  a  charge, 
and  a  broadening  of  life  to  whoever  goes  up  into  the  mountain, 
and  is  of  a  receptive  mind.  If  there  is  a  dual  nature  —  a 
conflict  of  good  and  evil  —  a  Dr.  Jeckyl  and  Mr.  Hyde  in 
every  person,  Dr.  Jeckyl  will  surely  prevail,  while  with 
bared  and  reverent  head  the  silent  witness  absorbs  the  pano- 
rama disclosed  to  his  wondering  gaze. 

"  For  still  may  we,  even  as  the  Indian  did, 
Clasp  palm  to  Nature's  palm,  and  pressure  close 
Deal  with  the  Infinite." 


A// 


MOUNT    GILEAD. 


Ob,  bow  canst  thou  renounce  the  boundless  store 

Of  charms  which  Nature  to  her  votary  yields! 
The  warbling  woodland,  the  resounding  shore, 

The  pomp  of  groves,  and  garniture  of  fields; 

All  that  the  genial  ray  of  morning  gilds, 
And  all  that  echoes  to  the  song  of  even, 

All  that  the  mountain's  fostering  bosom  shields, 
And  all  the  dread  magnificence  of  heaven, 

Oh,  how  canst  thou  renounce,  and  hope  to  be  forgiven? 

— BEATTIE. 

PARADOXICAL  as  the  statement  sounds,  it  is  true 
that  the  views  from  any  of  the  outlooks  of  Mount 
Gilead,  a  hill  of  less  than  three  hundred  feet,  are 
grander  and  more  comprehensive  than  can  be  seen  from  the 
summits  of  Vermont  mountains  that  tower  towards  the  sky 
three  thousand  feet.  The  explanation  is  easy.  When  the 
toilsome  ascent  of  the  Green  Mountain  is  made,  and  its 
highest  altitude  is  found,  the  traveler  is  simply  in  the  woods. 

Our  trident-crowned  hill  is  a  granite  obelisk  from  which, 
on  the  east,  if  the  earth  were  flat  and  a  telescope  of  sufficient 
power  were  constructed,  the  Rock  of  Gibraltar  could  be  seen. 
To  the  west  nothing  obstructs  the  view  till  Wachusett  throws 
its  shadow  against  the  ethereal  dome.  Ten  years  ago  this 
central  spot  of  our  woods  was  utterly  unknown,  save  to  the 
wood-chopper,  the  gunner,  or  a  stray  naturalist.  Glen 
Lewis  was  undiscovered,  and  Walden  Pond  existed  only  as 
prophetic  idea  in  the  brain  of  Edwin  Walden. 

In    Mr.    Newhall's  Annals   of  Lynn,    under   date    1881, 

(53) 


54  IN    LYNN   WOODS. 


appears  the  first  public  reference  to  the  place,  which  is  here 
reproduced  as  a  matter  of  history,  and  to  show  in  a  striking 
manner  what  changes  ten  years  have  wrought  within  our 
northern  borders  : 

"On  Wednesday,  September  21,  'The  Exploring  Circle,' 
a  voluntary  association  of  ladies  and  gentlemen  of  culture, 
held  a  '  Camp  Day '  on  a  romantic  elevation  perhaps  a  mile 
northward  from  Dungeon  Rock,  and  as  was  calculated  about 
the  center  of  Lynn  Woods.  They  had  previously  held  sim- 
ilar meetings  in  the  forest,  and  consecrated  and  given  appro- 
priate names  to  some  of  the  other  hills  which  still  remain 
unknown  to  most  of  our  people,  but  which  would  richly  re- 
pay the  visits  of  every  lover  of  the  wild  and  weird,  the 
romantic  and  lovely  in  Nature.  The  occasion  under  notice 
was  the  consecration  of  'Mount  Gilead,'  one  of  the  most 
interesting  spots  within  our  borders,  and  from  which  the 
view,  though  chiefly  of  forest,  is  grand  in  the  extreme.  The 
services  were  highly  pleasing,  music,  both  vocal  and  instru- 
mental, lending  its  charms  to  the  picturesque  ceremonials. 
There  were  also  brief  addresses,  and  the  substantial  addition 
of  a  picnic  entertainment.  The  day  was  very  pleasant,  and 
several  noted  individuals  from  abroad  were  present.  The 
'Circle'  entertains  the  laudable  hope  of  initiating  such 
measures  as  will  prevent  the  entire  destruction  of  our  noble 
forests  by  the  relentless  woodsman's  onward  march,  and 
perhaps  ultimately  secure  a  suitable  tract  for  a  public 
park." 

Then  William  Basset  built  a  little  camp  upon  the  ideal 
spot  of  the  whole  territory  for  such  a  purpose.  It  is  in  the 
midst  of  an  oak  grove,  which  nestles  in  a  nook,  midway  be- 
tween the  three  salient  points  of  the  hilltop.  Sheltered 
from  the  sun's  rays  by  the  trees,  protected  from  the  blasts 
of  the  chill  north  and  east  winds  by  the  rock  barriers,  the 


MOUNT    GILEAD.  55 


westward  opens  upon  a  charming  long-distance  landscape 
over  the  Middlesex  Fells.  Still  only  the  few  knew  of  the 
existence  of  this  sightly  eminence. 

In  1889,  a  marvelous  change  was  wrought  in  the  great 
valley  of  the  north.  The  tangled  maze  of  golden  rods  and 
asters  in  Blood's  Swamp  disappeared  by  magic  more  master- 
ful than  that  of  the  fabled  lamp  and  ring  of  Aladdin.  The 
brook,  with  its  rustic  bridge,  beyond  which  was  Glen  Lewis, 
only  of  late  known  to  woodland  rovers,  also  vanished.  Mr. 
Bishop  came  with  his  science,  an  army  of  men  and  horses, 
and  made  a  reality  of  Mr.  Walden's  vision.  Two  walls 
spanned  the  valley.  Two  ponds  of  sparkling  water  appeared 
in  place  of  the  vanished  scenes.  Around  these  ponds  a  solid 
driveway,  with  snake-like  undulations,  glided.  The  only 
fault  we  can  find  with  the  modern  genii  —  the  engineers  — 
is  that  neither  their  instruments  nor  their  books  have  any 
beauty  lines.  Their  orders  are,  "  Hew  to  the  line,  let  the  chips 
fall  where  they  will."  They  leave  scarred  rocks,  but  no  trees. 

This  transformation  scene  exposed  the  woods  to  many 
dangers ;  it  also  opened  up  their  varied  charms  to  a  multi- 
tude who  had  spent  their  lives  hereabouts,  and  had  hereto- 
fore paced  serenely  in  the  stereotyped  ways.  It  became 
apparent  that  the  ponds  and  the  woods  might  attract  worse 
tenants  than  the  wolves  and  wildcats  that  lurked  in  the 
shades  in  the  olden  time.  It  became  a  case  of  the  greatest 
good  of  the  greatest  number ;  so,  at  the  risk  of  offending  the 
sensibilities  of  the  naturalists,  who  had  longed  for  the  perfect 
seclusion  of  the  woods,  a  modern  highway  sprang  to  the  sum- 
mit of  Mount  Gilead.  It  was  so  constructed  that  the  scars 
made  in  its  progress  will  soon  be  obliterated  and  the  drive- 
way appear  almost  as  natural  as  the  old  mossy  lane. 


56  IN    LYNN    WOODS. 


Gentle  reader,  if  jou  are  tired  of  the  mad  rush  and  dis- 
cordant sounds  of  urban  life,  walk  with  us  of  an  early 
summer  evening  up  the  Great  Woods  Road,  where  the  tree- 
tops  make  a  living  arch  of  green,  listen  to  the  whip-poor- 
wills  warbling  their  nightly  chants,  stand  upon  the  southern 
crest  of  Gilead,  look  up  to  the  flawless  dome,  star-bespangled, 
absorb  as  much  of  exhilaration  as  the  senses  will  contain, 
then  retire  for  a  little  rest  in  yonder  camp.  Silence  pro- 
found reigns,  the  darkness  that  precedes  the  dawn  comes  on. 
Hark!  'tis  not  the  prudent  chairman's  alarm  clock  that 
awakens  from  slumber,  it  is  the  glad  voices  of  song  birds, 
who  seem  to  rival  in  number  the  stars  of  the  heavens.  Their 
eyes  have  caught  the  first  signs  of  the  new  day.  Go  out  on 
the  northern  outlook,  the  mists  of  the  night  are  below  us, 
they  wrap  the  town  and  the  woodland,  they  are  under  our 
feet.  Look  yonder,  it  is  only  four  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
Yet  the  daily  miracle  that  puts  away  the  darkness  has  already 
begun.  Look  steadfastly  at  Mount  Spickett  for  a  few  mo- 
ments. The  glorious  orb  floats  into  full  view.  The  voices 
of  the  birds  are  hushed.  The  new  day  is  born.  Walk  back 
by  the  boulder  path  through  the  Dungeon  Vale,  drink  at 
the  cool  spring  in  the  horse  pasture,  and  with  tired  feet  but 
alert  brain  and  vigorous  appetite  you  may  be  at  home  before 
the  sleepy  townsmen  have  ceased  rubbing  their  eyes.  Come 
again  to  the  mountain,  go  out  to  the  western  outlook,  of 
which  Officer  Hunt  claims  to  be  the  discoverer,  and  which 
he  certainly  has  made  accessible. 

Looking  south,  a  picture  is  revealed  of  surpassing  loveli- 
ness. In  the  foreground  is  the  Point  of  Pines,  where  the 
shining  beach  comes  down  to  meet  our  river  of  Saugus  ;  be- 
yond it  lies  Boston  Bay,  with  its  hundred  islands,  This 


MOUNT    GILEAD.  57 


bay  and  harbor,  with  the  possible  exception  of  Venice,  has 
no  rival  in  the  world  as  an  animated  pleasure  waterway. 
More  than  one  quarter  of  all  the  registered  yachts  of  the 
entire  Atlantic,  Pacific  and  lake  coasts  have  their  home 
berths  in  the  waters  of  this  bay.  The  whole  number  of 
masted  pleasure  craft  sailing  the  harbor  is  at  least  seven 
hundred. 

When  sated  with  ocean  and  white  wings  turn  to  the  west ; 
over  the  massed  green  of  the  forest  are  Maiden,  Melrose, 
Wakefield,  Reading,  Andover,  and  many  another  fair  town. 
Over  and  beyond  them  are  seen  the  dusky  shapes  of  a  seem- 
ing circle  of  mountain  peaks.  The  prominent  ones,  begin- 
ning at  the  west  and  running  around  to  the  north,  aie 
Wachusett,  Watatic,  Monadnock,  Pack  Monadnock,  Temple 
Mountains,  Joe  English,  Twin  Uncanoonucs.  When  the 
observatory  of  the  future  stands  upon  Gilead,  the  horizon  line 
will  be  a  complete  circle.  It  is  now  broken  by  the  greater 
height  of  Burrill  Hill.  Lynn  will  then  come  into  the  view, 
as  well  as  Marblehead  and  Cape  Ann. 

Gilead  is  a  wonderful  kaleidoscope.  Its  symmetrical 
pictures  and  beautiful  colors  are  as  endless  as  the  hours  that 
glide  on  forever.  Study  it  when  the  September  moon  is  in 
the  zenith.  Look  first  where  the  setting  sun  in  a  golden 
cloud  gilds  the  spires  of  Wakefield.  Then,  heedless  of  time,' 
watch  night  come  on  over  the  hills  and  valleys.  The  cloud 
has  gone  with  the  sun.  It  is  a  full  moon  and  a  cloudless 
sky.  The  heavy  mist  of  the  harvest  month  steals  silently 
over  the  valleys  and  the  lesser  heights. 

To  the  southwest  lies  a  hill  known  as  The  Island.  It  is 
an  elevation,  surrounded  by  Tomlins'  Swamp,  rarely  visited, 
impenetrable  by  reason  of  dense  and  matted  vegetation.  It 


58  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


requires  such  a  night  as  this  to  comprehend  fully  how  ap- 
propriate is  the  ancient  title,  The  Island.  The  mist  comes 
in  every  whit  like  the  rising  tides  of  the  Bay  of  Fundy,  or 
like  a  new  deluge.  The  city  with  its  lights  has  long  since 
sunk.  Reservoir  Hill  and  Cedar  Hill  are  in  the  distance, 
just  above  the  engulfing  waves.  Nearer  and  nearer  conies 
the  dull  sealike  vapor.  It  completely  surrounds  the  Island. 
Still  silent  it  creeps  on  till  it  hides  the  highest  tree  tops. 
The  Island  is  submerged.  The  lapping  waves  are  coming 
up  the  sides  of  Gilead  itself.  The  tide-like  appearance  is  so 
perfect  that  the  absorbed  gazer  seems  to  feel  the  encroach- 
ing waters  drawing  him  into  their  fatal  embrace.  The  only 
way  to  dispel  the  illusion  is  to  retreat  from  the  rock  and 
look  up  at  fair  Luna  and  gleaming  Jupiter  through  the 
Sacred  Oaks. 

Turn  the  kaleidoscope  once  more  and  the  sun,  which  now 
appears  over  Burrill  Hill,  instead  of  Spickett,  together  with 
the  doctor's  fragrant  coffee,  and  eggs,  and  toast,  and  baked 
potatoes,  relegate  the  scenes  of  the  night  to  memory's  store- 
house, and  the  earth  is  very  real  again. 

Nature,  like  a  child,  has  its  moods.  Laughter  is  often 
followed  \)y  sudden  tears.  Who  knows  why  ? 

The  days  are  not  all  clear  even  on  Gilead.  There  are 
times  when  clouds  gather,  the  bay  is  hid,  the  mountains  re- 
cede, the  green  waves  of  the  forest  are  turned  to  an  inky 
blackness.  One  by  one  distant  objects  fade  away  till  naught 
remains  save  the  rock  at  our  feet,  and  the  enwrapping  folds 
of  the  dense  rain  cloud.  Then  the  wise  man  will  seek 
shelter,  and  when  the  downpour  has  ceased  we  '11  drink  it  in 
bumpers  to  the  memory  of  the  fathers  who  bequeathed  to 
us  this  fair  heritage. 


MOUNT    GILEAD.  59 


The  driveway  that  winds  up  the  eastern  slope  of  Gilead 
has  its  objective  point  upon  the  southern  outlook.  The 
visitor  may  at  this  point,  make  an  abrupt  and  startling 
change  in  his  method  of  locomotion.  He  may  plunge  down 
the  alpine  pass  that  picks  its  way  along  the  tremendous 
mass  of  granite  walls  that  makes  the  western  face  grand 
and  imposing. 

Not  suspended  in  the  air  like  Mahomet's  coffin,  but  high 
upon  the  cliff  side,  midway  between  the  brow  of  the  moun- 
tain and  the  ravine,  there  is  a  grouping  in  stone  that  is  a 
much  more  natural  altar,  altar  steps,  seats  and  overhanging 
canopy,  than  Mr.  Lewis  found  in  the  Pulpit  Rock  at  Nahant. 

"  The  groves  were  God's  first  temples." 

Here  is  the  grove  and  the  cromlech,  and  in  the  Druidical 
age  mystic  rites  and  sacrifices  may  have  been  witnessed  on 
this  spot. 


THE    GLEN. 


To  the  infinite  variety  and  picturesque  inequality  of  Nature,  we  owe  the  great 
charm  of  her  uncloying  beauty.  Look  at  her  primitive  woods,  scattered  trees,  with 
moist  sward  and  bright  mosses  at  their  roots.— WHITTIER. 


are  many  other  glens  in  the  woods,  but  this 
place,  sometimes  called  Penny  Brook  Glen  or  the 
old  man's  walk,  is  the  Glen.  Of  all  restful  spots, 
this  is  chief.  It  is  a  secluded  and  narrow  valley,  between 
hills  covered  with  old  trees,  through  which,  on  its  bed  of 
black  rocks  covered  with  emerald  moss  and  hoary  lichens, 
flows  the  babbling  Penny  Brook,  soon  to  lose  itself  in  Wai- 
den  Pond.  Whoever  stands  upon  these  crossing  stones  or 
rests  upon  those  at  the  base  of  the  high  pines  and  hemlocks 
that  make  a  perpetual  shade,  may  read  the  story  of  the  old 
man's  walk  in  the  appreciative  words  of  Cyrus  M.  Tracy. 

The  recent  death  of  Mr.  Tracy  suggests  the  propriety  of 
inserting  it  here,  as  much  of  it,  especially  the  first  thoughts, 
apply  so  well  to  the  author. 

"  It  is  not  fitting  that  our  ideas  of  respect  for  the  dead 
should  be  ill-chosen  or  marked  by  any  excess  either  way. 
To  limit  all  our  praises  to  the  departed  who  have  happened 
to  die  wealthy,  would  be  to  depress  all  our  respect  to  a  mere 
gold  worship ;  to  see  no  virtue  in  any  but  popular  favorites, 
often  rude  and  mean  as  they  are,  is  to  burn  incense  to  igno- 
rance, and  make  an  idol  of  vice.  Humble  life,  however, 


THE    GLEN.  61 


often  furnishes  the  finest  themes  for  commendation,  and  so 
it  happens  in  the  present  instance. 

"  Ebenezer  Hawkes  was  a  birthright  member  of  the  Society 
of  Friends,  whose  worthy  connection  he  never  abandoned 
nor  dishonored.  He  belonged  to  that  ancient  family  who 
derived  their  origin  from  the  patriarchal  Adam  Hawkes,  and 
who,  established  on  the  lands  of  their  ancestors,  have  so  long 
given  the  very  name  to  the  northern  ward  of  the  town  of 
Saugus.  Of  his  early  history,  we  can  only  meagerly  speak ; 
but  at  some  period  in  his  early  manhood,  he  suffered  an 
injury  from  sunstroke,  or  something  of  that  nature,  from  the 
effects  of  which  he  never  recovered.  So  sensitive  did  he 
always  remain  to  the  rays  of  the  sun,  that  he  could  not  bear 
the  least  beam  upon  his  head,  and  he  was  therefore  never 
seen  abroad  without  an  umbrella.  Indeed,  no  kind  of  heat 
that  would  fall  upon  his  brain  could  be  endured ;  though  the 
warmth  of  a  kitchen  hearth-fire  was  said  sometimes  to  prove 
grateful.  Nearly  always,  therefore,  he  was  compelled  to  be 
out  of  doors,  and  here  his  natural  tastes  conducted  him  to  an 
asylum  of  inexhaustible  pleasures. 

"  The  great  forest  of  Lynn  Woods  lay  near  his  home,  and 
amidst  its  thick  and  fragrant  shades  he  soon  learned  to  im- 
mure himself.  Twice  every  day,  in  all  weather,  save  the 
veriest  tempests,  did  he,  in  his  later  days  at  least,  flee  from 
the  house  and  betake  him  to  his  accustomed  paths  and  hills. 
Here  he  became  a  keen  observer,  with  eye  and  ear  ever 
alert,  and  a  heart  whose  mild  and  quiet  impulses  were  always 
ready  of  response  to  the  thousand  delightful  ways  in  which 
Nature  ever  challenged  his  attention.  It  cannot,  perhaps, 
be  said  that  he  became  at  all  a  man  of  science ;  but  he  gave 
abundant  evidence  of  being  thoroughly  schooled  as  a  pupil 
of  Nature.  Probably  there  is  not  a  living  creature,  save 
some  kinds  of  insects,  now  inhabiting  this  great  forest,  with 
whose  habits  he  had  not  made  himself  more  or  less  familiar. 
He  often  spoke  of  having  observed,  dead  or  living,  every 
wild  animal  that  he  had  ever  heard  of  as  belonging  to  this 


62  IN   LYNN    WOODS. 


section,  and  some  that  may  be  called  very  rare.  Yet  he  was 
no  collector.  No  shot  from  him  ever  brought  down  the  in- 
nocent wood-bird ;  he  would  probably  have  recoiled  from  a 
gun  as  from  a  serpent.  But  he  penetrated  every  nook  and 
by-path.  His  stepping-stones  may  be  found  leading  over 
every  brook ;  his  rustic  seats  are  seen  under  trees  and  shady 
spots  innumerable. 

"  Often  the  sportsman  or  botanist,  striking  into  some  path 
seemingly  all  abandoned  and  forgotten,  would  almost  start 
at  the  figure  of  this  venerable  son  of  Nature,  pensively  med- 
itating over  a  little  brook,  or  listening  with  almost  inspired 
look  to  the  sound  of  the  wind  in  the  tree-tops.  Yet  neither 
was  he  a  dreamer  nor  an  empty  enthusiast.  He  took  good 
note  of  men  and  things ;  he  knew  the  traditions  of  bounda- 
ries and  ownership,  and  could  conduct  one  to  a  given  prop- 
erty with  the  certainty  of  a  guide-book. 

"  It  was  a  matter  of  admiration,  the  way  in  which  he  was 
wont  to  appear  when  least  expected.  It  might  perhaps  be 
said  that  he  could  not  be  followed ;  he  would  disappear  like 
a  partridge,  and  leave  no  sign  ;  or  again,  come  upon  your 
path  like  something  risen  from  the  ground.  Still,  he  in- 
spired no  terror,  not  even  to  a  child.  Grave  and  sober  he 
certainly  was,  but  never  unsocial,  and  so  neat  and  pleasant 
in  his  habits  that  nobody  that  once  knew  him  could  meet 
one  more  entertaining. 

"  Such  a  life  is  worth  living.  He  was  not  indigent ;  but 
being  prudent  and  frugal  in  all  his  ways,  a  little,  well 
tended,  was  enough  for  him.  A  faithful  disciple,  according 
to  his  belief,  he  walked  alone  indeed,  as  to  men,  but  who 
shall  say  not  with  the  daily  companionship  of  God  in  His 
supreme  beauty,  and  of  all  good  spirits  that  may  minister  to 
the  devoted  and  sincere  ?  A  short,  though  it  is  said,  painful 
illness  closed  the  scene,  and  led  him  forth  to  the  full  enjoy- 
ment, we  will  hope,  of  all  that  beauty  of  goodness  that  he 
had  followed  so  long,  as  glimpses  of  sunshine  through  drift- 
ing clouds. 


THE   GLEN.  63 


"  Friend  of  the  gentle  heart, 
I  miss  thy  foot  along  the  woodland  way : 
Thy  voice,  as  quiet  as  a  time  in  May 

When  green  buds  swell  and  start, 
Salutes  me  not,  as  in  the  silent  glen 
I  look  to  find  thee  walking,  far  from  thoughtless  men. 

"How  oft,  beside  thy  path, 
Hast  thou  the  timid  hare  found  stark  and  cold, 
The  .stricken  fox,  his  cunning  days  all  told, 

The  wood-bird  in  its  death: 

And  thou  has  said,  'I,  too,  one  day,  shall  cease 
To  draw  this  well-worn  breath,  and  pass  away  like  these.' 

"Yet  not  as  these.     The  man 
Who  lives,  and  loves  his  Maker  and  his  kin, 
And  by  that  name,  takes  all  God's  creatures  in, 

And  thanks  God  that  he  can, 
Lies  down  upon  his  Father's  bosom  warm, 
And  dies,  not  as  the  brute,  unpitied  in  the  storm. 

"And  thou,  O  gentle  friend! 
Full  of  the  spirit  of  kindness  for  all  things, 
From  butterflies  with  sunset  colored  wings, 

To  men  that  comprehend, — 
Be  ours  the  comfort,  now  that  thou  art  gone, 
To  think,  soft  hands  upheld  thee,  and  dimmed  eyes  looked  on. 

"Ay,  to  the  last  looked  on: 
Looked  till  the  shadow  fell :  until  they  said, 
There  is  not  found,  now  that  this  clay  is  dead, 

One  hand  to  throw  a  stone 
Against  his  name,  from  Nebo  to  the  strand; 
Nay,  not  an  evil  word  like  to  a  grain  of  sand.' 

"O  worthy  soul!    I  seem, 
Walking  beneath  the  cliff,  to  hear  the  mourn 
Of  the  wood-thrush  that  misses  thee :  the  horn 

Of  bees  that  drone,  and  dream, 
And  wake  and  search  for  thee  again :  the  brook 
That  waits,  and  cannot  dry,  till  thou  art  come  to  look. 

"The  wind  among  the  pines 
Is  come,  and  whispers  thou  indeed  art  dead ; 
The  squirrel  tells  it  to  her  brood  o'erhead, 

The  marmot  in  her  mines. 
Even  the  wood-brakes  rustling  in  the  breeze, 
Seem  voicing  thoughts  of  one  whom  once  they  sought  to  please. 


64  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


"For  thou  didst  prize  them  all. 
(And  he  who  thus  holds  Nature,  cannot  hate, 
Not  even  the  faults  he  may  not  imitate; 
God  pardon  us,  great  and  small !  ) 
And  all  this  Nature,  where  thy  love  was  sown 
Now  bears  thee  love  again,  a  hundred  fold  for  one. 

"  Yet  fare-thee-well  for  this. 
Life's  farther  door  opes  to  a  broader  state, 
Where  all  the  good  eternally  are  great, 

Eternally  at  peace. 

And  thy  true  soul,  through  skies  or  woodlands  now, 
May  walk  with  life  immortal  bound  upon  its  brow !  " 

August  10,  1884. 

Only  a  fragment  of  the  primeval  forest,  as  it  existed  in 
the  Glen  a  few  years  since,  remains.  The  mercenary  greed 
of  man  sent  into  its  sacred  recesses  the  modern  Goths  and 
Vandals  —  the  ax-men  of  the  brickyards.  What  they  de- 
stroyed in  a  few  days,  generations  cannot  restore.  Even 
this  wanton  waste  of  beauty  wrought  good,  for  every  blow 
of  the  ax  gathered  the  loyal  men  of  Lynn  to  the  rescue. 
The  spoiler  was  bought  off.  Here  in  the  heart  of  the  old 
woods  the  last  onslaught  «f  legal  tree-killers  was  foiled. 
Philip  A.  Chase  led  the  citizens  in  the  last  great  charge  for 
the  defence  of  the  forest.  Like  the  books  of  the  Cumaean 
Sibyl,  what  was  left  was  of  more  value  than  all  in  the  begin- 
ning, for  public  sentiment  was  so  aroused  and  crystalized, 
that  the  whole  of  the  woodlands  were  rescued  from  private 
control.  Henceforth  he  who  cuts  a  tree  in  the  wide  domain 
is  a  marauder  and  a  vulgar  thief.  By  and  by,  after  a  gen- 
eration or  two,  copsewood  will  cover  the  scars  and  the 
stumps  that  mark  the  havoc  of  the  woodchopper.  Our  suc- 
cessors will  wisely  care  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and 
for  our  children's  children  its  crown  of  noble  trees  shall  be 
restored  to  the  whole  Glen. 


THE    GLEN.  65 


Enough  remains,  however,  to  us  to  think  that  the  poet 
Whittier  must  have  had  these  elysian  shades  in  his  mind 
when  he  wrote  the  lines  at  the  head  of  this  sketch.  Search 
New  England  from  the  Aroostook  to  the  Connecticut,  and 
no  spot  will  be  found  that  will  so  vividly  call  up  that  scene 
of  our  greatest  story-teller  of  our  own  stock,  where  little 
Pearl  plays  upon  the  banks  of  the  brook,  while  Hester 
Prynne  and  the  Rev.  Arthur  Dimmesdale,  reclining  in  the 
shades,  vainly  strive  to  break  the  meshes  of  the  net  of  doom, 
which  fate  and  old  Roger  Chillingworth  have  woven  about 
their  lives.  Innocent  Pearl  found  the  ray  of  sunshine  that 
penetrated  the  dense  foliage ;  her  mother,  weighed  down  with 
the  burden  of  the  fatal  scarlet  letter,  saw  a  gleam  of  hope ; 
arid  Arthur  Dimmesdale  had  the  torch  of  life  rekindled 
within  his  wasted  frame.  Even  as  these  oppressed  souls 
found  relief,  so  shall  other  men  and  women,  wearied  of  the 
vanities  of  the  world,  here  cast  them  off,  touch  the  healing 
hand  of  mother  earth,  and  Antaeus-like  rise  rested  and 
invigorated. 

Distant  views  suggest  association  with  the  gregarious 
multitude.  The  Glen  means  repose,  introspection.  Its 
seclusion  would  have  tempted  that  student  of  Nature, 
Thoreau,  away  from  that  other  Waldeii  Pond,  which  he 
made  famous,  had  he  lived  till  now. 

This  is  a  veritable  bit  of  the  solemn  old  forests,  which  in 
the  early  days  were,  in  the  tense  imaginations  of  the  fathers, 
the  midnight  meeting  places  of  the  forces  of  evil.  Hither 
Satan's  emissaries  beguiled  the  unwary.  To  the  Puritans, 
reared  in  the  fen  counties  of  England,  these  dark  woods 
were  peopled  with  mysterious  phantoms ;  even  their  silence 
was  oppressive.  Before  the  invasion  of  the  pale-faces,  this 
5 


66  IN    LYNN   WOODS. 


mossy  path  by  the  brook  side  was  pressed  by  the  moccasined 
feet  of  the  taciturn" red  man,  as  he  swiftly  sped  on  his  way 
from  his  hunting-ground  by  Lake  Quannapowit  to  the  wig- 
wam of  his  Sagamore  upon  the  hill  by  the  great  water.  This 
ancient  Indian  trail  is  indeed  the  shortest  way  from  Lynn 
to  the  headwaters  of  Saugus  River.  It  winds  along  near 
the  brook  till  it  crosses  Penny  Bridge,  skirts  the  western 
bounds  of  Tomlins'  Swamp,  part  of  the  way  on  a  corduroy 
road,  through  what  is  now  Park  Avenue,  to  Walnut  Street. 
It  is  not  only  the  shortest,  but  it  is  the  easiest  course.  It  is 
almost  a  dead  level  to  North  Saugus,  and  why  it  did  not 
become  a  highway  in  the  planting  days  to  "  our  neighbors, 
the  farmers  "  would  be  a  mystery  if  we  did  not  know  that 
in  the  early  times  homesteads  were  located  on  the  hills, 
whereby  it  became  necessary  to  carry  the  roads  over  the 
hills  instead  of  around  them. 

The  largest  tree  in  Lynn  Woods  may  be  seen  here.  It  is 
a  white  pine  west  of  the  brook  and  just  over  the  Saugus 
line.  That  sounds  like  an  Hibernicism,  but  the  imaginary 
line  that  runs  between  the  two  municipalities  does  not  make 
two  woods,  and  the  time  is  not  far  away  when  Saugus  and 
Lynn  will  once  more  be  one  as  they  always  should  have 
been. 


PONDS. 


~\/¥  R.  LEWIS,  in  the  introduction  to  the  History  of 
I  %  Lynn,  enumerates  the  ponds  of  Lynn.  He  did 
not  name  one  of  the  ponds,  which  in  the  future 
will  be  intimately  connected  with  and  a  part  of  the  history 
of  the  Lynn  Woods.  There  was  a  very  good  reason  for  the 
omission,  however,  for  neither  Breed's,  nor  Birch,  Glen 
Lewis  nor  Walden  Ponds,  were  in  existence  when  he  wrote 
that  charming  book.  Mr.  Lewis,  indeed,  knew  but  little  of 
the  woods.  Nahant  and  the  seaside  were  his  favorite  spots. 
That  in  his  blood  there  lurked  the  old  Puritan  dread  of  the 
woods,  his  lines  reveal :  — 

O,  bury  me  not  in  the  dark  old  woods, 

Where  the  sunbeams  never  shine; 
Where  mingles  the  mist  of  the  mountain  floods, 

With  the  dew  of  the  dismal  pine! 
But  bury  me  deep  by  the  bright  blue  sea, 

I  have  loved  in  life  so  well; 
Where  the  winds  may  come  to  my  spirit  free, 

And  the  sound  of  the  ocean  shell. 

Long  before  Mr.  Lewis  ceased  to  write,  Breed's  Pond 
nestled  among  the  hills,  the  most  picturesque  of  all  the 
ponds  of  Lynn,  natural  or  artificial,  had  been  utilized.  It 
was  in  1843  that  Theophilus  N.  Breed  imprisoned  the  waters 
that  ran  down  with  noisy  gladness  under  the  Lantern  from 
the  Dungeon  Hills,  from  Dog  Hill,  and  Bennet's  Swamp, 

(67) 


68  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


and  where  the  united  streams  crossed  the  colonial  highway 
at  Oak  Street,  in  a  gorge  between  the  hills,  a  dam  was  built. 
Mr.  Breed  here  established  a  factory  for  making  shoemakers' 
tools  or  kit.  The  pond  in  its  name  recognizes  one  of  Lynn's 
oldest  families,  and  in  its  first  use  reminds  us  of  an  almost 
lost  art,  that  of  making  shoes  by  hand. 

With  the  varying  fortunes  of  the  proprietors  of  this  pond 
we  meddle  not,  till  1870 ;  during  Mr.  Walden's  mayoralty, 
Breed's  Pond,  with  its  rights  and  easements,  became  forever 
the  property  of  the  city,  as  the  first  of  its  basins  for  supply- 
ing it  with  pure  water  for  domestic  and  all  other  purposes. 

It  is  said  that  distance  lends  enchantment  to  the  view. 
It  is  truer  to  say  that  the  inspired  pens  of  a  country's  seers 
and  poets  make  the  many  see  through  the  eyes  of  the  few. 
A  little  group  of  poets  have  made  the  lake  region  of  England 
holy  land  for  the  people  of  the  English  tongue.  The  Irish- 
man sings  in  every  land  the  praises  of  the  Lakes  of  Killar- 
ney.  With  flaming  torch  Walter  Scott  has  illuminated  the 
lochs,  and  the  moors,  and  the  mountain  passes  of  bonnie 
Scotland.  Give  us  like  power  of  the  imagination  and  ex- 
pression, and  Breed's  Pond  would  rival  Loch  Katrine.  Let 
the  huntsman's  horn  reverberate  its  clarion  notes  from  noble 
Lantern  Rock  over  its  clear  waters,  and  Ellen  Douglas  or 
Rhoderick  Dhu  might  pull  out  from  the  shadow  of  yonder 
wooded  island. 

The  little  island  in  this  pond  has  an  historical  interest, 
for  upon  it  are  yet  to  be  seen  wolf  pits  dug  by  the  planters 
in  the  infancy  of  the  settlement.  They  are  not  far  from  the 
site  of  the  home  of  Richard  Sadler,  first  Clerk  of  the  Writs. 
On  the  13th  of  September,  1631,  Governor  Winthrop  records 
in  his  journal :  "  The  wolves  killed  some  swine  at  Saugus." 


PONDS.  69 

On  the  9th  of  November,  the  court  ordered  that  if  any  one 
killed  a  wolf  he  should  have  one  penny  for  each  cow  and 
horse,  and  one  farthing  for  each  sheep  and  swine  in  the 
plantation.  Mr.  Lewis  says :  "  Many  pits  were  dug  in  the 
woods  to  entrap  them,  and  some  of  them  are  yet  to  be  seen." 
Perchance  these  very  pits  were  dug  by  the  clerkly  Mr 
Sadler  himself. 

In  1872,  the  people  of  Lynn  being  still  thirsty,  the  Water 
Board  went  up  Walnut  Street  to  the  west,  and,  by  intercept- 
ing the  stream  when  it  was  about  to  cross  the  road,  changed 
a  brook  into  a  pond,  under  the  same  name  Birch.  The 
name  is  commonplace  enough,  and  the  purpose  was  strictly 
a  business  one,  but  out  of  it  grew,  unwittingly  to  the  author- 
ities, a  tarn  as  fair  as  traveled  eyes  ever  looked  upon.  It 
lies  upon  the  western  bounds  of  our  woods,  Cedar  Hill  and 
bold,  bare-headed  Mt.  Tabor  stand  to  the  east,  while  its 
waters  bathe  the  feet  of  Choose  Hill  on  the  west.  Its  shape 
is  as  arrowy  as  any  loch  that  old  Scotia  can  boast.  A  view 
down  the  pond  is  a  revelation  that  awes  an  artist. 

About  the  shores  of  Birch  Pond  occurred  many  of  the 
stirring  scenes  of  Lynn's  early  history.  Near  by,  on  the 
south  toward  Vinegar  Hill,  was  built,  in  1642,  a  garrison 
house  for  protection  against  the  red  Indians,  who  skulked 
in  the  forest  shadows.  Of  it,  Mr.  Lewis  writes : 

"A  great  alarm  was  occasioned  through  the  colony  by  a 
report  that  the  Indians  intended  to  exterminate  the  English. 
The  people  were  ordered  to  keep  a  watch  from  sunset  to 
sunrise,  and  blacksmiths  were  directed  to  suspend  all  other 
business  till  the  arms  of  the  colony  were  repaired.  A  house 
was  built  for  the  soldiers,  and  another,  about  forty  feet  long, 
for  a  safe  retreat  for  the  women  and  children  of  the  Town 


70  IN    LYNN    WOODS. 


in  case  of  an  attack  from  the  Indians.  These  houses  were 
within  the  limits  of  Saugus,  about  eighty  rods  from  the 
eastern  boundary,  and  about  the  same  distance  south  of 
Walnut  Street.  The  cellars  of  both  these  buildings  remain, 
and  near  them,  on  the  east,  is  a  fine  unfailing  spring." 

Choose  Hill  and  its  abandoned  road,  traveled  by  the  farm- 
ers of  Lynnfield  two  centuries  ago  in  their  pious  way  to 
and  from  the  old  meeting-house  in  Lynn,  is  well  worth  the 
attention  of  the  student  of  the  earlier  days.  The  road 
itself,  with  its  rude  walls,  gutters,  culverts,  and  ancient 
apple  trees,  struggling  with  the  native  growth  of  the  forest 
for  possession,  is  one  of  the  most  striking  evidences  of  our 
being  old  enough  to  have  had  a  history.  In  the  roadway 
are  decaying  stumps  of  giant  pines,  that  must  have  been  cut 
down  fifty  years  ago.  Before  they  were  cut  the  trees  must 
have  been  growing  a  hundred  years  in  the  disused  road. 

The  name  is  a  reminder  of  a  controversy,  which  was  the 
beginning  of  the  end  of  the  old  town  of  Lynn  —  the  first 
step  which  led  up  in  later  years  to  the  creation,  first  of  the 
town  of  Lynnfield,  and  second  of  the  town  of  Saugus.  For 
fifty  years  all  the  people  had  worshipped  as  one  parish. 
The  hardship  of  the  long  miles  from  Lynnfield  to  Lynn, 
bore  upon  the  outdwellers.  A  committee,  representing  the 
three  sections,  which  we  know  as  Lynn,  Saugus  and  Lynn- 
field,  attempted  to  choose  a  site  for  the  meeting-house  which 
should  be  reasonably  convenient  for  all.  They  selected 
this  now  wooded  hill  as  about  equally  distant  from  each 
locality.  Lynn  objected.  Lynnfield  was  set  off  as  a  parish 
or  district,  November  17,  1712,  and  its  inhabitants  were  to 
be  freed  from  parish  taxes  as  soon  as  a  meeting-house  should 
be  built  and  a  minister  settled.  This  was  accomplished  in 


PONDS.  71 

1715,  and  the  second  parish  of  Lynn  was  duly  organized. 
Saugus  later,  in  1738,  became  the  third  or  west  parish. 

The  natural  result  was  that  later  the  two  parishes  became 
towns ;  Lynnfield  in  1814,  and  Saugus  in  1815.  All  these 
things  happened  because  the  people  of  the  low  lands  of 
Lynn  would  not  go  up  to  this  hill  country  of  Saugus  to  listen 
to  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  according  to  Puritanism. 
The  name  "  Choose  "  or  "  Chosen  "  has  remained. 

In  those  days  there  were  several  houses  upon  this  hill. 
The  last  of  the  old  places  disappeared  in  the  opening  years 
of  the  present  century.  It  stood  upon  the  eastern  declivity 
of  the  hill,  not  far  from  where  the  house  of  Harrison  Wilson 
is  now  situated.  Its  eastern  outlook  was  down  the  valley, 
which  is  now  filled  with  the  sparkling  waters  of  Birch  Pond. 
Its  owner  was  John  Knights,  who  was  a  gardener  in  the  ser- 
vice of  Landlord  Jacob  Newhall,  of  the  Anchor  Tavern. 
Mr.  B.  F.  Newhall,  the  grandson  of  Landlord  Newhall,  in 
his  interesting  sketches  of  Saugus,  written  thirty  years  ago, 
says  that  the  old  house  was  standing  within  his  remem- 
brance. Mr.  Newhall  had  lived  to  see  the  extinction  of  the 
Knights  family,  and  to  see  the  once  rural  and  happy  home 
lapse  into  the  wilderness. 

It  is  hard  for  the  casual  observer  to  realize  that  these  oak- 
covered  hillsides  once  were  dotted  with  the  abodes  of  men. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  in  the  early  days  of  the  settle- 
ment, the  iron  works  was  the  center  of  the  life  of  the  town. 
And  even  after  that  ceased  operations,  its  water  privilege  — 
the  best  in  Lynn  —  was  utilized  for  grist  mills  and  fulling 
mills  down  to  the  present  day,  when  it  is  used  by  the  woolen 
mills  of  Franker  and  Scott. 

The    early   settlers    came    out    of    the    fen    counties    of 


72  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


England.  They  were  tired  of  flat  lands.  They  passed  by  the 
low  plains  of  Lynn  and  built  upon  sightly  hills.  Later  the 
gregarious  habits,  sedentary  pursuits,  such  as  shoemaking, 
the  difficulty  of  reaping  adequate  returns  from  hard  soil,  and 
the  abandonment  of  the  iron  works,  gradually  depopulated 
this  territory.  Here  Nicholas  Browne,  a  prominent  settler, 
located,  and  here  in  later  years  lived  Captain  Caleb  Down- 
ing, when  he  gave  his  name  to  the  road  which  the  people 
still  cling  to  in  spite  of  its  municipal  title  of  Walnut  Street. 

The  land  where  the  house  was  erected  is  now  held  by  the 
City  of  Lynn,  as  a  protection  to  the  water  shed  of  its  fair 
Birch  Pond.  Little  did  the  pioneer,  Browne,  dream  when 
he  hewed,  down  the  virgin  forest  for  a  clearing  about  his 
house,  that  two  and  a  half  centuries  later  the  uses  of  the 
land  would  have  so  strangely  changed,  that  a  city  should 
be  planting  upon  the  very  spot  a  grove  of  white  pines. 

Birch  Pond  dam  was  raised  in  1885,  but  the  expanding 
city  still  cried  for  more  water.  The  makeshift  experiment 
of  bringing  down  the  waters  of  Hawkes  and  Penny  Brooks 
from  North  Saugus  in  an  open  canal,  was  tried.  Then  the 
sober  second  thought  of  the  Water  Board  of  1888  wisely 
reverted  to  Mr.  Walden's  original  plan,  outlined  in  the  first 
annual  report  of  the  Public  Water  Board  sixteen  years 
before.  The  result  was  the  construction,  in  1889,  of  the 
storage  basins,  which  constituted  Walden  and  Glen  Lewis 
Ponds.  Mr.  George  H.  Bishop,  the  engineer  who  directed 
the  great  work,  was  the  same  man  upon  whose  advice  Mr. 
Walden  acted  in  making  his  first  recommendation. 

In  passing,  it  may  be  said  in  the  words  of  David  H. 
Sweetser,  Chairman  of  the  Water  Board  of  1888,  "This  is 
a  practical  completion  of  the  plan  of  water  supply,  as  first 


PONDS.  73 

presented  and  outlined  by  the  Water  Board  in  its  first 
annual  report.  Its  final  acceptance  after  years  of  contro- 
versy and  experience,  is  the  best  commentary  on  the  cor- 
rectness of  their  views." 

Edwin  Walden  rendered  conspicuous  public  service  in 
state  and  municipal  affairs.  He  devoted  more  thought  and 
more  time  to  the  development  of  Lynn's  water  supply  than 
to  any  other  pursuit.  He  became  President  of  the  Public 
Water  Board  at  its  organization  in  1871.  He  resigned  in 
1884,  when  the  sources  he  had  always  earnestly  advocated 
had  been  adopted.  The  construction  of  these  basins  by 
universal  approval  was  a  satisfactory  sequel  to  his  life's 
labors.  With  like  consent  and  with  singular  good  taste, 
the  most  important  of  our  ponds  will  bear  forever  his  name. 
He  would  have  asked  no  better  monument.  He  could  have 
no  more  enduring  memorial. 

Where  now  flow  the  waters  of  Walden  Pond,  there  was 
anciently  a  solitary  homestead.  It  was  called  The  Danforth 
Place,  by  reason  of  its  last  occupant  being  a  man  of  that 
name,  who  had  married  a  woman  of  the  Sweetser  family,  in 
whom  was  the  title.  The  house  was  many  years  ago  re- 
moved to  Cliftondale,  and  the  farm  lapsed  into  the  forest. 
At  the  time  the  city  began  its  operations,  the  great  meadows 
were  unoccupied  save  by  a  series  of  dams,  which  Mr.  Samuel 
Hawkes  used  to  store  water  for  the  purpose  of  shielding  his 
bright  cranberry  beds  from  the  early  frost. 

The  larger  part  of  Walden  Pond  is  in  Saugus,  and  a 
small  portion  in  Lynnfield.  It  runs  up  to  the  great  north- 
west bound,  where  the  three  places,  Lynn,  Saugus  and  Lynn- 
field  touch.  The  eastern  end  is  in  Lynn,  where  it  extends 
to  the  now  sunk  but  once  fair  Glen  Lewis, 


74  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


TJje  Forest  Society,  May  30,  1882,  dedicated  a  secluded 
but  singularly  beautiful  spot  in  the  then  far-off  wilderness, 
in  memory  of  Lynn's  first  historian.  The  brook  in  the  midst 
of  the  Glen  was  spanned  by  a  log  bridge  ;  in  the  background 
towered  the  great  boulders,  which  now  buttress  the  pond 
that  has  usurped  the  Glen.  Alonzo  Lewis'  best  monument 
is  the  history  of  his  native  town.  Books  are  the  only  im- 
mortal creations  of  the  human  intellect,  or  in  the  language 
of  William  Hazlitt,  "  Words  are  the  only  things  that  last 
forever."  The  poet  Montgomery  expresses  the  same  idea 
in  his  Retrospect  of  Literature :  "  Looking  abroad  over  the 
whole  world,  after  a  lapse  of  nearly  six  thousand  years,  what 
have  we  of  the  past  but  the  words  in  which  its  history  is 
recorded  ?  What,  besides  a  few  mouldering  and  brittle 
ruins,  which  time  is  imperceptibly  touching  down  into  dust, 
what,  besides  these,  remains  of  the  glory,  the  grandeur,  the 
intelligence,  the  supremacy  of  the  Grecian  republics,  or  the 
empire  of  Rome?  Nothing  but  the  words  of  poets,  histo- 
rians, philosophers,  and  orators,  who,  being  dead,  yet  speak, 
and  in  their  immortal  works  still  maintain  their  dominion 
over  inferior  minds  through  all  posterity." 

It  is  well,  however,  for  the  people  of  Lynn  to  show  their 
appreciation  of  the  labors  of  Mr.  Lewis,  by  baptizing  our 
northern  lake  by  the  name  of  Glen  Lewis  Pond. 

High  upon  the  hills,  north  of  the  Ox  Pasture,  lies  a  little 
gem  of  the  woods,  the  dividing  point  whence  the  waters  that 
flow  west  into  Hawkes'  Brook,  and  southerly  into  the  Flax 
Pond  system,  divide.  This  is  Nell's  Pond. 

At  the  eastern  gateway  of  the  forest  is  Sluice  Pond,  and 
towards  the  city  the  roadway  borders  upon  the  Flax  Pond 
of  the  colonial  days. 


OX  PASTURE  WATCH  TOWER. 


"  You  should  have  seen  that  long  hill  range, 

With  gaps  of  brightness  riven  — 
How  through  each  pass  and  hollow  streamed 
The  purpling  lights  of  heaven." 

— WHITTIER. 

THE  SCOPE  of  this  work  did  not  include   anything 
in  the  Ox  Pasture,  but  as  it  goes  to  press,  the  Watch 
Tower  of  the  far  wilderness  has  passed  from  private 
ownership  into  our  reservation.     Ten  acres  of  granite  preci- 
pice, including  the  spring  of  sweet  water  at  its  base,  worth 
more  for  the  purpose  of  rural  resort  than  all  the  rest  of  the 
Ox  Pasture,  has  been  added  to  the  heritage  of  the  future 
people  of  Lynn,  so  that  it  may  not  be  inappropriate  to  give 
a  few  lines  to  the  last  acquisition. 

By  the  few  who  have  known  it  by  tradition  or  ownership, 
it  has  been  called  indifferently  Tophet  or  Raccoon  Ledge. 
Each  name  is  significant  of  a  thought  in  the  minds  of  the 
early  settlers  : 

"  The  pleasant  valley  of  Hinnom,  Tophet  thence 
And  black  Gehenna  called,  the  type  of  Hell." 

The  Puritan  poet,  John  Milton,  little  thought  when  he 
wrote  these  lines  that  his  fellow  worshippers  in  the  American 
wilderness  would  apply  the  name  Tophet  to  an  outlook  that 
is,  perhaps,  more  seductive,  more  permanent  in  memory's 
picture  gallery  than  any  other  in  Lynn  Woods, 

(75) 


76  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


The  Puritan  yeoman  read  his  Bible  as  often  and  as 
devoutly  as  any  race  ever  did.  He  did  not  come  to  this 
bold  Ossa  on  Pelion  piled  with  ears  attuned  to  the  melan- 
choly ditty  of  the  yellow  hammer,  nor  eyes  watching  for  the 
billowy  sea  of  swaying  tree-tops.  His  imagination  did  not 
indulge  in  the  fancy  that  this  was  a  granite  capstan  around 
which  the  monarchs  of  the  forest  were  tugging,  or  as  an 
anchor  which  held  them  securely  in  their  moorings,  while 
Boreas  howled  in  sleety  gales. 

As  he  felled  the  trees  and  framed  the  timber  in  Meeting- 
House  Swamp,  for  the  Old  Tunnel  Meeting-House,  he 
looked  up  to  this  almost  unscalable  granite  bulk  and 
thought  that  it  was  an  awful  place  for  his  wood  lot  to  be 
laid  out ;  hence,  with  pious  profanity,  he  called  it  not  Hell, 
but  Tophet  Ledge. 

I  desire  at  this  point  to  interject  a  personal  or  family  ex- 
planation. When  I  wrote  the  above,  regarding  the  name 
Tophet  Ledge,  I  did  not  have  at  hand  the  original  layout  of 
these  lots,  and  was  wholly  unaware  that  the  first  owner  in 
severalty  of  the  outlook  was  one  of  my  ancestors,  Ebenezer 
Hawkes,  the  first  of  that  name.  It  was  allotted  to  him  in 
the  division  of  the  common  lands  in  1706.  I  hasten  to 
explain  that  I  believe  the  name  was  not  applied  by  my  land- 
loving  ancestor,  but  that  it  had  attached  long  before  the 
division.  Therefore  my  family  are  not  at  fault  for  such  a 
wicked  name. 

Musing  upon  this  rock  suggests  a  study  of  the  law  of 
heredity  here  illustrated.  This  Ebenezer  was  the  youngest 
grandson  of  the  first  comer  of  the  Hawkes  family.  He, 
living  upon  the  western  border  of  this  great  forest,  had  a 
passion  for  land,  and  many  pages  of  the  early  books  of 


OX   PASTUEE   WATCH   TOWER.  77 

records  at  Salem  are  covered  by  conveyances  of  these  wood- 
lands to  him.  In  each  generation  of  the  family  since  there 
has  been  at  least  one  individual  of  like  characteristics. 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  when  our  Water  Board  sought 
title  to  the  land  in  and  about  the  water  basins,  one  of  his 
descendants  was  found  to  have  more  knowledge  of  titles  and 
boundaries,  and  to  possess  more  acres,  than  any  other  person. 

The  fascination  which  the  woods  had  for  another  of  his 
descendants  of  the  same  Christian  name,  is  given  elsewhere 
in  the  words  of  Mr.  Tracy.  He  probably  could  not  have 
analyzed  the  motives  which  drew  him  to  the  haunts  of 
Nature.  It  was,  however,  an  inheritance  from  his  ances- 
tor, who  had  been  impressed  with  the  restfulness  of  the 
unbroken  wilderness ;  or,  perhaps,  the  sternness  of  the  Pur- 
itan faith  was  given  a  more  somber  tinge  from  the  immensity 
of  the  solitude  all  about  him. 

When  individual  ownership  became  inexpedient  and  the 
ancient  communal  use  was  restored,  the  same  law  of  heredity 
compelled  another  descendant  to  continue  to  walk  the  old 
ways  as  a  Park  Commissioner. 

Two  ranges  to  the  north,  in  the  valley,  the  prospector 
knew  there  were  wolves,  and  there  he  constructed  those 
oblong  traps,  covered  with  a  slight  net- work  of  pine  boughs 
and  baited  with  savory  temptation,  for  the  hated  marauder. 

He  found  here  another  unknown  beast,  more  of  a  climber 
than  the  wolf.  He  discovered  that  this  first  occupant  and 
observer  of  Nature  was  a  raccoon,  procyon  lotor,  so  he  styled 
the  place  anew  as  Raccoon  Ledge. 

Both  of  these  names  meant  something  when  applied  to 
the  hill,  which  is  more  than  can  be  said  of  the  name,  which, 
of  late,  some  people  have  attempted  to  attach  —  Mount 


78  IN   LYNX   WOODS. 


Sanborn  —  after  a  worthy  pedagogue,  who  used  to  flog  boys 

in  Gravesend. 

i 

Right  here  it  may  be  well  to  say  that  it  seems  a  misnomer 
to  call  our  summits,  mountains.  It  adds  nothing  to  their 
height,  their  beauty,  or  their  impressiveness.  They  are  the 
hills  of  Lynn. 

This  noble  peak,  which  Mr.  Rowell's  map  shows  to  be 
two  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high,  now  that  it  has  passed  into 
the  hands  of  the  city,  will  in  due  time  receive  an  appropriate 
designation. 

The  best  point  of  observation  for  those  who  visit  the 
woods  by  carriage  is  from  Echo  Rock,  from  whence  it  may 
be  seen  northwesterly  over  Glen  Lewis  Pond.  Look  upon 

"  Yon  hill's  red  crown, 
Of  old  the  Indian  trod, 
And,  through  the  sunset  air,  looked  down 
Upon  the  smile  of  God." 

Clinging  to  its  gritty  rock  is  a  rude  cabin,  which  some 
adventurous  explorers  have  erected  with  much  toil  and 
pleasure. 

The  title  to  this  land  has  always  been  held  by  the  fami- 
lies of  the  first  settlers.  The  first  has  been  named.  The 
last  was  the  Ingalls  family. l 

The  view  from  this  summit  is  peculiarly  restful.  A  slit 
of  East  Lynn  appears  through  the  hills  that  bound  the 
Blood's  Swamp  valley  on  the  left.  An  exquisite  bit  of  rural 
landscape  is  seen,  looking  down  southwest  upon  North 
Saugus  and  Oaklandvale.  In  the  broad  foreground  are 


i  It  is  a  pleasure  to  record  in  this  connection  that  Charles  Sidney  Ingalls,  of  this 
historic  family,  has  made  a  gift  to  the  city,  of  five  acres  of  land,  lying  between 
Hermon  and  Spickett,  near  a  third  outlook,  that  may  appropriately  be  called 
Ingalls'  Hill. 


OX    PASTURE    WATCH    TOWER.  79 

Burrill  and  Gilead.  Forty  miles  away  to  the  west  is  Wa- 
chusett.  In  a  clear  clay  bright  eyes  may  plainly  see  the 
outlines  of  the  house  upon  the  summit.  To  the  north,  the 
New  Hampshire  mountains  in  endless  procession  and  varying 
aspects  appear  and  disappear  as  clouds  and  sunshine,  dark- 
ness and  light  follow  each  other,  even  as  they  do  on  Gilead. 
From  this  point  of  vantage,  on  which  the  ancient  herds- 
man listened  for  the  tinkling  bell  of  straying  cattle,  the 
gorgeous  New  England  autumnal  tints  give  to  whomever 
wills, 

"Nature's  own  exceeding  peace." 

Happy,  indeed,  should  be  the  people  of  Lynn  between  the 
blue  Atlantic  and  these  sightly  hills,  who  can  sing  with  our 
beloved  poet: 

"  I  know  each  misty  mountain  sign, 
I  know  the  voice  of  wave  anil  pine, 
And  I  am  yours,  and  ye  are  mine ! " 


APPENDIX. 


PUBLIC  FOREST  TRUST. 

/TT\HROUGH  the  kindness  of  Mr.  William  P.  Sargent, 
its  Secretary,  "  The  Records  of  the  Trustees  of  the 
Free  Public  Forest  of  Lynn  "  have  been  at  my  dis- 
posal.     From   this   interesting   manuscript,    I   have    taken 
much  of  historical  interest,  from  its  opening  pages,  which  set 
forth  the  organization  under  the  deed  of  trust,  to  the  final 
action  transferring  the  land  acquired  by  the  Trustees  to  the 
Park  Commission  for  the  city. 

That  which  is  given  is  mainly  a  transcript  from  the  Book 
of  Records. 

Indenture    adopted  for  the  purpose  of  constituting  the  Free 
Public  Forest  of  Lynn. 

This  Indenture,  made  this  sixth  day  of  December,  in  the 
year  of  our  Lord,  one  thousand  eight  hundred  and  eighty- 
one,  by  and  between  George  E.  Emery,  Edward  Johnson, 
Jr.,  Benjamin  Proctor,  Cyrus  M.  Tracy,  Samuel  A.  Guilford 
and  William  P.  Sargent,  all  of  the  City  of  Lynn,  in  the 
County  of  Essex  and  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  with 
Wilbur  F.  Newhall,  of  Saugus,  in  said  County,  as  party  of 
the  first  part :  — 

And  the  inhabitants  of  said  City  of  Lynn  as  represented 
by  Henry  B.  Levering,  Mayor  of  said  City,  as  party  of  the 
second  part :  — 

6  (81) 


82  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


Witnesseth, — That  the  said  party  of  the  first  part  in  con- 
sideration of  the  premises,  and  of  one  dollar  to  them  paid  by 
the  party  of  the  second  part,  the  receipt  whereof  is  hereby 
acknowledged,  do  hereby  jointly  and  severally,  covenant 
and^  agree  to  and  with  said  party  of  the  second  part,  as  fol- 
lows, viz.: 

First.  That  they,  the  said  party  of  the  first  part,  will, 
from  and  after  the  date  hereof,  accept  and  undertake  the 
duty  of  Trustees  of  and  for  said  party  of  the  second  part, 
for  the  purpose  of  preserving,  improving  and  adorning  the 
tract  or  territory  known  as  the 

FOREST    OP   LYNN, 

to  wit :  —  All  that  territory,  and  no  more  (or  any  practicable 
portion  included  within  the  same),  lying  partly  in  said 
Lynn  and  partly  in  the  townships  of  Saugus  and  Lynnfield, 
respectively,  and  bounded  northerly  by  the  Newburyport 
Turnpike ;  easterly  by  the  Lynnfield  Road ;  southerly  by  the 
southern  wall  of  the  Dungeon  Pasture,  and  westerly  by  the 
Downing  Road,  as  said  roads  and  places  are  now  known  and 
called. 

Second.  That  they  will,  as  Trustees  as  aforesaid,  receive, 
take,  manage  and  apply,  for  the  purpose  above  indicated, 
any  and  all  donations,  devises,  bequests  and  contributions 
made  to  them  for  such  purposes,  whether  of  land,  money 
or  other  valuable  consideration ;  and  that  they  will  faith- 
fully use  the  same,  within  a  due  and  sound  discretion, 
according  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the  giver  or 
givers  thereof,  not  applying  the  same,  or  the  product  thereof, 
to  any  unwholesome  purposes  of  private  gain  and  emolument, 
but  always  to  the  end  that  said  tract,  so  far  as  intrusted  to 
them,  shall  remain  and  be  made  a 

FREE   PUBLIC   FOREST 

for  the  benefit,  enjoyment  and  advantage  of  said  party  of 
the  second  part,  as  well  as  of  each  and  every  donor  and 


APPENDIX.  83 


benefactor  thereunto,  free  and  clear  of  all  fees,  tolls,  duties 
or  imposts  of  any  kind  for  the  lawful  use  of  said  premises 
forever. 

Third.  That  they  will  faithfully  and  discreetly  fill  all 
vacancies  occurring  in  their  number,  by  death,  resignation 
or  removal,  so  that  said  number  shall  always  include  seven 
persons,  power  so  to  do  being  hereby  expressly  granted, 
reserved  and  assured  to  them.  And  that  they  will,'  as  often 
as  once  in  every  year,  prepare  and  publicly  render  in  print  or 
otherwise,  a  full  report  of  their  doings  for  the  period  expired. 

And  the  said  party  of  the  second  part,  by  the  Mayor  as 
aforesaid,  hereby  agree  and  covenant  to  and  with  the  party 
of  the  first  part,  to  receive,  accept  and  duly  observe  the 
foregoing  covenants  and  agreements,  recognizing  and  ac- 
knowledging the  same  as  lawful,  expedient  and  satisfactory ; 
and  that  all  fit,  reasonable  and  proper  aid  and  assistance  to 
said  party  of  the  first  part,  in  the  prosecution  of  said  duty, 
shall  be  by  said  party  of  the  second  part  always  rendered 
and  afforded. 

And  it  is  further  mutually  agreed  by  and  between  the 
parties  hereto,  that  upon  the  commission,  by  said  party  of 
the  first  part,  or  any  number  thereof,  of  any  act  in  violation 
of  this  agreement,  by  omission  or  excess  of  duty,  or  any 
malfeasance  in  office  whatever,  whereby  any  individual  in 
his  rightful  interests,  or  the  said  party  of  the  second  part, 
at  large  considered,  shall  suffer  wrong  or  injury  susceptible 
of  complaint  and  evidence,  then  it  shall  be  lawful,  and  the 
right  is  hereby  expressly  confirmed,  for  any  person  so 
aggrieved,  or  for  any  actual  donor  under  this  agreement,  or 
for  the  Mayor  of  the  City  of  Lynn,  then  being  in  office,  to 
make  due  complaint  of  such  offence,  to  the  Supreme  Judicial 
Court  of  Massachusetts,  or  to  any  other  court  of  competent 
jurisdiction,  and  thereupon  the  party  so  offending  shall  be 
held  in  all  points  answerable,  and  subject  to  lawful  decision 
in  the  case,  anything  in  this  agreement  to  the  contrary  not- 
withstanding. 


84  IN    LYNN   WOODS. 


In  Testimony  Whereof,  The  said  George  E.  Emery,  Edward 
Johnson,  Jr.,  Benjamin  Proctor,  Cyrus  M.  Tracy,  Samuel  A. 
Guilford,  William  P.  Sargent  and  Wilbur  F.  Newhall,  have 
hereto  set  their  hands  and  seals,  as  also  to  another  instru- 
ment of  like  tenor  and  date  herewith ;  and  the  said  Henry 
B.  Lovering,  Mayor  as  aforesaid,  being  thereunto  duly 
authorized  by  order  of  the  City  Council,  has  also  subscribed 
both  said  instruments  and  thereunto  caused  the  seal  of  said 
City  of  Lynn  to  be  affixed,  the  day  and  year  first  above 
written. 

GEORGE  E.  EMERY  [Seal] 
EDWARD  JOHNSON,  JR.  [Seal] 
BENJAMIN  PROCTOR  [Seal] 

Executed  and  delivered  in  ~  ^, 

CYRUS  M.  TRACY          [Seal] 

presence  of 

SAMUEL  A.  GUILFORD  [Seal] 


CHARLES  E.  PARSONS. 


WILLIAM  P.  SARGENT  [Seal] 


WILBUR  F.  NEWHALL  [Seal] 
[Seal]  HENRY   B.  LOVERING,  Mayor. 


COMMONWEALTH   OF   MASSACHUSETTS. 

Essex  ss. :  December  9,  1881. 

Then  personally  appeared  the  above  named  George  E. 
Emery,  Edward  Johnson,  Jr.,  Benjamin  Proctor,  Cyrus  M. 
Tracy,  Samuel  A.  Guilford,  William  P.  Sargent,  Wilbur  F. 
Newhall  and  Henry  B.  Levering,  Mayor,  and  acknowledged 
the  above  as  their  several  free  act  and  deed. 

Before  me, 

CHARLES  E.  PARSONS,  Justice  of  Peace. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Forest  Trustees,  held  Jan.  12,  1882, 
a  paper  prepared  by  Cyrus  M.  Tracy,  outlining  the  scheme, 
was  adopted.  It  read  as  follows : 


APPENDIX.  85 


"  The  Trustees  of  the  Free  Public  Forest  of  Lynn,  being 
now  fully  organized  and  prepared  for  duty,  desire  to  ask 
the  attention  of  the  people  of  Lynn  to  the  following  con- 
siderations. The  execution  of  the  Indenture  of  Trust,  on 
the  sixth  day  of  December,  1881,  was,  no  doubt,  the  first 
work  ever  really  accomplished  for  providing  the  people  of 
Lynn  with  an  available  place  of  rural  comfort  and  recrea- 
tion. By  that  instrument,  seven  well-known  citizens  volun- 
tarily assumed  the  care  and  management  of  all  such  parts 
of  Lynn  as  should  be  conveyed  to  them  for  that  purpose, 
which  lands  should  thus  become  forever  dedicated  to  the 
free  use  of  the  inhabitants,  as  a  public  domain,  never  again 
to  pass  into  private  hands,  or  be  diverted  from  its  proper 
usefulness,  as  a  wholesome  retreat  from  the  increasing  crowd 
and  turmoil  of  the  enlarging  city.  To  assure  the  public 
that  the  purpose  of  these  Trustees  was  not  private  in  any 
sense,  nor  tainted  at  all  with  the  spirit  of  speculation,  the 
Indentures  were  made  with  the  Mayor  of  the  City,  as  the 
only  person  who  could  suitably  represent  all  the  inhabitants, 
and  whose  official  act  in  regard  to  them  in  such  a  matter  as 
this,  would  hardly  admit  of  a  possible  question.  Yet,  to 
make  this  perfectly  sure,  and  that  no  charge  of  covert  action 
should  be  possible,  the  Trustees  first  obtained  open  hearing 
before  the  Boards  of  the  City  Council,  when  every  point  and 
feature  of  the  enterprise  was  offered  to  the  investigation  of 
all.  Without  such  preliminary  action,  the  Mayor  would,  of 
course,  have  hesitated  to  enter  into  the  agreement ;  with  it, 
he  found  himself  advised  to  it  by  the  unanimous  action  of 
the  whole  government.  Nor  was  there  any  reason  against 
such  action.  The  City  Government  was  not  asked  for 
funds,  nor  to  pass  laws  or  take  outward  measures  of  any 
kind  for  the  support  of  the  project.  The  Mayor  was  asked 
to  join  in  the  contract  on  behalf,  not  of  the  government,  but 
the  people ;  the  Council  was  only  requested  to  give  him  the 
necessary  authority  to  do  so.  By  his  compliance,  the  meas- 
ure was  invested  with  the  character  of  a  great  public 


86  IN    LYNX    WOODS. 


benevolence,  and  thus  admissible,  under  the  statutes,  to 
become  a  perpetuity.  And  thus  was  secured  the  most  im- 
portant point  of  all ;  for  if  any  plan  for  the  preservation  of 
a  forest  cannot  be  in  its  nature  perpetual,  it  is  at  once  liable 
to  every  kind  of  change  and  derangement,  and  simply  re- 
mains a  failure.  Again,  if  the  Board  of  Trustees,  originally 
full,  had  been  left  to  become  depleted  by  vacancies,  a  speedy 
end  would  have  been  imminent.  To  provide  no  way  of 
perpetuating  the  membership,  would  have  sometimes  left  it 
in  one  or  two  men's  power ;  while  to  invoke  the  election  of 
successors  by  any  exterior  authority,  would  have  removed 
the  object  directly  from  the  confidence  of  the  people.  The 
succession  was  therefore  reposited  in  the  Trustees  them- 
selves, they  filling  their  own  vacancies,  keeping  their  num- 
ber complete,  and  that  with  persons  of  known  sympathy 
with  the  object,  thus  making  possible  a  steady,  unbroken 
policy  of  good  toward  the  forest  and  its  welfare,  for  un- 
reckoned  years  to  come.  With  this  arrangement,  the  first 
one  ever  devised,  so  far  as  is  known,  for  the  reinvestment  of 
the  people  of  Lynn,  with  their  ancient,  legitimate  inheri- 
tance, the  Trustees  now  present  themselves  to  their  fellow 
citizens,  and  ask  not  only  to  be  accredited  as  friends  of  the 
public,  but  to  be  materially  assisted  for  the  furtherance  of 
their  work.  They  have  not  only  land  to  buy,  and  a  great 
deal  of  it,  but  they  have  also  roads  to  make,  paths  to  lay 
out,  bridges  to  construct,  and  shelters  to  build.  Every  dry 
season  for  years,  the  fire  has  devastated  the  forest,  killing 
every  green  thing  before  it.  They  must  keep  men  in  those 
times,  hereafter,  to  hunt  down  and  quench  these  fires  in 
their  small  beginnings.  The  parts  of  which  they  really 
acquire  the  possession  must  be  tended,  replanted  and  im- 
proved. Liberal  contributions  will  be  wanted  for  all  these 
things.  The  Trustees  will  come  to  you  and  urge  you  to  act 
as  benefactors  to  that  which  is,  after  all,  only  your  own  in- 
terest. For  the  Forest  of  Lynn  will  afford  every  citizen  a 
class  of  opportunities,  such  as  he  cannot  otherwise  have 


APPENDIX.  87 


within  a  distance  of  many  miles.  If  he  wishes  to  drive  out 
in  the  warm  afternoon,  its  shady  roadways  will  be  open  to 
him.  If  he  prefers  to  camp  out  with  his  family  for  a  time, 
away  from  the  heat,  its  cool  hillsides  are  full  of  the  most 
attractive  situations.  If  he  would  walk  with  his  children, 
entertain  his  friends,  commune  with  nature,  study  her  pure 
science,  or  merely  rest  from  the  glare  and  hurry  and  dust  of 
toil  and  labor,  the  forest  offers  its  streams  and  its  mountains, 
its  lakes  and  its  precipices,  to  attract,  to  interest  him  and 
recreate  his  wearied  energies ;  and  all  within  the  sound  of 
his  own  church  bell,  or  an  hour's  walk  of  the  public  con- 
veyance. This  is,  in  brief,  the  petition  of  the  Forest  to  you, 
an  inhabitant  of  Lynn,  and  an  heir  to  its  advantages,  beg- 
ging you  not  to  fail  in  the  work  of  helping  it  and  yourself 
at  the  same  time." 

In  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Trustees  for  1882,  they 
say :  "  By  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Thos.  P.  Nichols,  we  were 
favored  with  fifteen  hundred  copies  of  these  papers  (i.e.,  the 
Indenture  of  Trust  and  Circular  Statement)  which  formed 
the  first  benefaction  from  any  one.  The  first  contribution  of 
money  for  our  use  was  made  Jan.  28,  1882,  by  Mr.  B.  V. 
French."  The  first  donation  of  land  appears  to  have  been 
made  by  David  H.  Sweetser,  Edwin  Walden,  Lyman  B. 
Frazier  and  Aza  A.  Breed,  as  on  the  fifth  of  June,  1883, 
the  secretary  records  a  vote  "  That  the  offer  of  a  donation  of 
the  'Chadwell  Lot'  to  the  Public  Forest,  by  David  H. 
Sweetser  and  others,  be  gratefully  accepted  by  this  Board, 
and  that  the  secretary  communicate  the  thanks  of  the 
Board  to  the  donors  accordingly." 

On  the  record  of  the  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Trustees, 
under  date  Feb.  28,  1884,  is  given  a  list  of  donors  of  money 
to  date  : 


88 


IN    LYNN    WOODS. 


B.  V.  FRENCH, 
W.  G.  S.  KEKXB, 

B.  F.  SPINNEY, 
F.  W.  BREED, 

C.  S.    SWKETSER   &    CO., 

C.  A.  COFFIN, 
CHAS.  B.  TEBBETTS, 
AMOS  F.  BREED, 
PEVEAR  &  Co., 
JOSEPH  DAVIS, 
H.  A.  PEVEAR, 
DAVID  J.  LORD, 
EUGENE  BARRY, 
PATRICK  LENNOX, 
HENRY  BREED, 
JOHN  T.  MOULTON, 
JOHN  F.  PATTEN, 
WILBUR  F.  NEWHALL, 
CHARLES  E.  AMES, 
HOOD,  JOHNSON  &  Co., 
C.  J.  H.  WOODBURY, 
M.  P.  CLOUGH, 
MORGAN  &  DORE, 
GEORGE  D.  SARGEANT, 
W.  C.  HOLDER, 
CHARLES  BUFFUM, 
MELCHER  &  SPINNEY, 
GEORGE  FOSTER, 
H.  L.  PORTER, 
JESSE  L.  ATTWILL, 
HENRY  E.  NEWHALL, 


DR.  D.  F.  DREW, 
IRA  D.  ROGERS, 
C.  O.  BEEDE, 
DR.  I.  F.  GALLOUPE, 
PETER  M.  NEAL, 
C.  A.  TABER, 
GEORGE  O.  TARBOX, 
ROSALVIN  JONES, 
MRS.  C.  S.  BARNARD, 
SILSBEE  &  STEVENS, 
NEHEMIAH  LEE, 
ISAAC  M.  ATTWILL, 
PETER  JOHNSON, 
CHARLES  G.  FOSTER, 
JAMES  T.  MOULTON, 
WM.  H.  BANCROFT, 
GEORGE  A.  BREED, 
M.  H.  ABBOTT, 
Q.  A.  TOWNS, 
A.  J.  MACE, 
ABEL  G.  COURTIS, 
JOHN  E.  DONALLAN, 
NATHAN  CLARK, 
W.  E.  SYMONDS, 
G.  H.  HARWOOD, 
SPINNEY  &  CALDWELL, 
H.  R.  VALPEY, 
A.  CHOATE, 
W.  H.  NILES, 
C.  W.  WILSON. 


Jan.  19,  1885,  a  donation  from  Alvin  R.  Richardson  is 
acknowledged,  conveying  four  acres  of  land,  more  or  less, 
in  the  Forest  of  Lynn,  in  the  Middle  Pasture,  so-called,  near 
Penny  Bridge,  in  the  third  range  north  of  the  Middle 
Pasture  Wall. 

On  the  same  day  a  donation  from  Stephen  N.  Breed  was 
received,  conveying  by  deed  eight  acres  of  land  in  the  Forest 
of  Lynn,  situate  at  a  place  called  Steep  Hill,  being  a  lot 
lying  in  the  third  range  in  the  second  part  of  the  third 


APPENDIX.  89 


division,  and  consisting  of  the  lot  originally  laid  out  to 
Theophilus  Farrington  and  a  part  of  the  lot  laid  out  to  John 
Newhall,  Sr. 

The  Trustees  voted  that  these  respective  tracts  should 
bear  the  names  of  Richardson's  and  Breed's  Groves. 

The  records  of  the  Trustees,  under  date  of  March  3, 1886, 
acknowledge  a  gift  by  Ezra  Baker,1  of  six  acres  of  land  on 
the  northern  slope  of  Burrill  Hill. 

April  25,  1887,  David  H.  Sweetser,  Mary  Abby  Sweetser, 
Mary  Anna  Sweetser  and  Charles  S.  Sweetser,  deeded  to  the 
Trustees  of  the  Free  Public  Forest,  as  a  donation,  a  lot  of 
woodland  situated  in  Penny  Brook  Glen,  ninth  range  of 
"  Lots  in  the  body  of  the  town,"  between  the  lot  laid  out  to 
Edward  Fuller,  on  the  southwest,  and  that  to  John  Fuller 
on  the  northeast,  and  bounded  northwesterly  and  south- 
westerly by  the  range  lines,  containing  one  acre  and  forty 
poles. 

Jan.  3,  1887,  Eugene  Barry  was  elected  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Trustees,  in  place  of  Wilbur  F.  Newhall, 
resigned,  and  John  T.  Moulton  was  elected  a  member  in 
place  of  Benjamin  Proctor,  deceased. 

The  story  of  the  rescue  of  the  Penny  Brook  Glen,  the 
acquisition  of  the  Dungeon  Rock  and  the  active  agents 
therein,  is  related  in  the  Annual  Report  for  1887,  at  a 
meeting  held  March  1,  1888. 

"The  year  just  ended  has  resulted  more  to  the  advantage 
of  the  Forest  than  the  one  immediately  preceding,  and,  in- 
deed, considered  in  some  aspects,  we  may  perhaps  say,  more 
than  any  other  preceding.. 

1  Mr.  Tracy,  on  behalf  of  the  Trustees  of  the  Forest,  agreed  that  this  lot  should 
always  bear  the  name  of  Baker's  Grove.  It  is  marked  on  Mr.  Harris'  plan, 
E.  Burrill,  having  been  an  ancient  holding  of  the  Ebenezer  Burrill  family  of 
Swampscott. 


90  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


"We  have  been  brought  into  possession  of  nearly  as  much 
additional  land  as  in  any  one  of  the  past  years ;  while  as  to 
the  importance  of  the  acquisitions,  and  the  public  sympathy 
shown  in  the  contributions  toward  the  purchase,  no  other 
year  can  lay  any  claim  to  comparison  with  this. 

"Very  early  in  1887,  before  the  end  of  the  winter,  we 
learned  that  certain  parties  had  bargained  for  the  lots  lying 
in  Penny  Brook  Glen,  and  were  already  cutting  off  the 
wood  from  that  valuable  and  beautiful  locality.  Certain 
influential  gentlemen,  not  of  our  official  number,  on  having 
their  attention  called  to  the  fact,  expressed  a  deep  interest, 
and  at  once  proposed  decisive  action.  So  far  as  possible, 
we  immediately  joined  forces  with  them,  and  it  being  found 
on  inquiry  that  the  purchasing  party  was  willing  to  stay 
proceedings  and  exchange  his  right  for  a  fair  consideration, 
and  that  the  owner  of  the  land  was  willing  to  convey  to  us 
instead,  a  canvass  was  immediately  opened.  This  proved  so 
successful,  under  the  mangement  of  Philip  A.  Chase,  Esq., 
in  conjunction  with  one  of  our  own  numbers  (Mr.  Barry), 
that  in  a  relatively  very  short  time  the  whole  sum  was 
raised,  and  the  tract,  containing  some  thirteen  acres,  was 
fully  conveyed  to  the  Forest  forever.  The  conveying  par- 
ties were  the  heirs  of  the  late  Charles  Newhall  of  Broad 
Street,  and  the  consideration  paid  was  in  all  four  hundred 
dollars.  Through  the  whole  effort  we  had  been  kindly  and 
efficiently  assisted  by  D.  Herbert  Sweetser,  Esq.,  and  on  its 
fortunate  completion,  he,  with  others  of  his  family,  donated 
to  us  a  lot  in  the  same  vicinity,  containing  nearly  two  acres. 
By  this,  we  obtained  control  of  almost  the  whole  of  this 
beautiful  valley,  with  its  present  attractions,  indeed,  some- 
what marred,  but  with  its  best  features  still  uninjured. 
Some  fifty  cords  of  wood  had  been  cut,  including  many 
valuable  trees ;  but  the  monarchs  of  the  realm  were  rescued 
from  danger,  and  we  comfort  ourselves  for  the  loss  by  the 
thought  that  such  a  sacrifice  seemed  necessary  to  arouse  the 
active  sympathy  and  interference  of  our  citizens. 


APPENDIX.  91 


"  The  satisfactory  issue  in  this  direction,  encouraged  Messrs. 
Chase  and  Barry  to  attack  a  still  greater  undertaking.  The 
financial  position  of  the  Marble  property  at  Dungeon  Rock, 
had  become  one  of  some  uncertainty,  which  every  day  added 
to  the  conviction  that  it  ought,  if  possible,  to  be  soon  added 
to  our  possession.  Negotiations  with  the  owners  were 
opened ;  and  as  it  appeared  that  they  were  willing  to  convey 
to  us,  terms  were  at  length  adjusted  between  us,  and  Messrs. 
Chase  and  Barry  undertook  the  second  and  much  more  im- 
posing work.  That  their  persevering  exertions  were  fully 
successful,  appears  sufficiently  in  the  fact  that  the  title 
deeds  of  an  undivided  half,  each  from  Mrs.  H.  L.  Marble 
and  Mrs.  Carrie  Hickox,  of  the  special  'Rock'  property, 
and  a  full  conveyance  from  Mrs.  Marble  of  nearly  seven 
acres  adjoining,  were  delivered  to  us  on  payment  of  their 
equity  in  the  property,  early  in  the  season,  and  are  now 
duly  recorded,  making  some  thirty  acres  more,  the  perpetual 
possession  of  the  people.  The  total  cost  of  the  purchase 
was  about  three  thousand  dollars,  a  large  portion  of  which 
has  been  subscribed  and  collected,  leaving  only  a  previous 
mortgage  of  twelve  hundred  dollars.  It  is  only  just  to 
observe,  that  during  the  rather  protracted  solicitation  the 
private  pecuniary  support  of  the  parties  engaged  was  cheer- 
fully rendered;  and  it  is  quite  as  pleasant  to  understand, 
that  all  such  temporary  obligations  are  expected  to  soon  be 
cancelled  by  further  subscriptions  to  be  solicited  by  the  same 
gentlemen. 

"  Beyond  these  accessions,  Mr.  Sweetser,  with  his  associates, 
Messrs.  Walden,  Frazier  and  Breed,  has  since  made  a  fur- 
ther donation  of  a  lot  near  Lantern  Hill,  adjacent  to  that 
formerly  conveyed  to  us  by  the  City  of  Lynn.  This  lot 
contains  two  acres,  ten  poles. 

"  On  leaving  this  part  of  the  subject,  the  Trustees  desire  to 
place  upon  public  record  their  hearty  acknowledgments, 
both  officially  and  otherwise,  to  all  whose  sympathies,  means 
and  labors,  helped  toward  this  desirable  result,  and  in  q, 


92  IN   LYSTN   WOODS. 


particular  manner  to  Messrs.  Philip  A.  Chase,  D.  Herbert 
Sweetser  and  Eugene  Barry,  whose  efforts  effected,  for  us 
and  the  people  of  Lynn,  what  otherwise  could  hardly  have 
been  accomplished." 

In  the  annual  report  for  1888,  the  Trustees  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of  "  the  legacy  left  us  by  our  late  lamented 
associate,  Benjamin  Proctor,  amounting  to  two  hundred 
dollars." 

Feb.  18,  1889,  a  donation  from  Samuel  J.  Hollis  was 
received,  conveying  by  deed  a  lot  of  land  in  the  Forest  of 
Lynn,  containing  seven  acres,  more  or  less,  lying  in  the 
ninth  range,  of  the  second  division  of  Lynn  Common  Lands, 
bounded  northeasterly  by  land  of  the  heirs  of  William 
Estes;  southwesterly  by  land  late  of  Samuel  Boyce,  and 
otherwise  by  the  range  lines.  Being  the  same  lot  that  was 
conveyed  to  me  by  Nathaniel  Ingalls,  by  his  deed  recorded 
with  Essex  Deeds,  book  823,  leaf  266 ;  and  to  said  Ingalls 
by  William  Basse tt,  administrator  of  the  estate  of  Ezekiel 
Estes,  by  deed  recorded  as  above,  book  357,  leaf  290. 

April  11, 1890,  the  Trustees  met  the  Park  Commissioners. 
At  the  close  of  the  conference  the  following  order,  offered 
by  Mr.  Barry,  was  unanimously  adopted : 

"  Ordered,  That  it  is  the  sense  of  this  Board,  that  the 
best  interests  of  the  Free  Public  Forest  would  be  best  pro- 
moted, by  deeding  all  the  lands  situated  in  Lynn,  and  now 
held  by  the  Trustees,  to  the  City  of  Lynn,  in  trust,  how- 
ever, and  subject  to  all  mortgages,  liens,  terms  and  condi- 
tions, as  the  same  are  now  held  by  us  under  the  Indenture 
of  Trust  or  otherwise ;  and  provided,  farther,  that  said  City 
of  Lynn  will  agree  with  said  Trustees,  and  each  of  them  to 
hold  them,  and  each  of  them  harmless  from  all  loss,  cost  and 


APPENDIX.    *  93 

trouble  in  any  way  arising  by  reason  of  this  proposed  con- 
veyance." 

At  a  meeting  held  May  29,  1890,  President  Guilford 
presented  a  draft  of  a  deed,  and,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Barry,  it 
was  voted  to  adopt  and  execute  the  deed  as  reported  by 
President  Guilford. 

Previous  to  the  adoption  of  the  deed.  President  Guilford 
read  the  copy  of  an  order,  adopted  by  both  branches  of 
the  City  Council,  May  20,  1890,  and  the  Secretary  was 
directed  to  enter  the  same  upon  these  records : 


CITY  OF  LYNN. 

BOARD  OF  MAYOB  AND  ALDERMEN, 
May  20,  1890. 


Ordered,  That  the  Mayor,  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of 
the  City,  be  and  hereby  is  authorized  to  accept  from  Edward 
Johnson,  Jr.,  John  T.  Moulton,  Samuel  A.  Guilford,  William 
P.  Sargent  and  Eugene  Barry,  Trustees  under  an  Indenture 
of  Trust,  made  the  sixth  day  of  December,  1881,  and  re- 
corded with  the  Essex  South  District  Deeds,  book  1069, 
leaf  297,  which  is  a  trust  for  the  benefit  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  City  of  Lynn,  of  certain  lands  in  Lynn  Woods,  their 
deed  as  trustees  of  all  the  lands  situated  and  being  in  the 
City  of  Lynn,  belonging  to  the  said  Trustees  from  whomso- 
ever conveyed ;  and  that  after  the  payment  by  the  Board  of 
Park  Commissioners  of  all  mortgages,  liens  and  liabilities 
thereon,  the  said  City  indemnify  and  hold  harmless,  said  Ed- 
ward Johnson,  Jr.,  John  T.  Moulton,  Samuel  A.  Guilford, 
William  P.  Sargent  and  Eugene  Barry,  from  the  consequences 
of  their  said  conveyance,  above  described,  to  the  City  of  Lynn. 

Adopted,  sent  down  for  concurrence. 

CHARLES  E.  PARSONS,  City  Clerk. 


94  IN   LYNN    WOODS. 


IN  COMMON  COUNCIL, 
20,  1890. 


Adopted  in  concurrence. 

JOHN  R.  STORY,  Clerk. 
Approved. 

ASA  T.  NEWHALL,  Mayor. 
A  true  copy,  attest: 

CHARLES  E.  PARSONS,  City  Cleric. 

Pursuant  to  adjournment,  the  Board  met  at  the  Mayor's 
room  at  the  City  Hall,  Saturday  morning,  May  31,  1890, 
at  9  o'clock,  for  the  purpose  of  executing  with  the  Mayor, 
the  deed  of  conveyance  of  lands  as  adopted  by  the  Board 
May  29,  1890. 

Members  present:  Guilford,  Johnson,  Sargent  and  Moul- 
ton. 

All  the  Trustees  present  signed  and  sealed  the  deed  of 
conveyance  in  the  presence  of  the  Mayor  and  the  City  Clerk  ; 
and  subsequently  Mayor  Newhall,  in  the  presence  of  the 
Trustees  above  named,  and  in  presence  of  Charles  E.  Par- 
sons, City  Clerk,  signed  the  deed  of  conveyance  and  affixed 
the  corporate  seal  of  the  City  thereto. 

Subsequently,  Mr.  Eugene  Barry,  who  was  absent  from 
the  meeting,  was  found  at  his  place  of  business,  "and  there 
signed  and  sealed  the  deed  of  conveyance  the  on  same  day. 

Cyrus  M.  Tracy  was  the  first  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  and  Wilbur  F.  Newhall,  Treasurer. 

Samuel  A.  Guilford  was  President  and  John  T.  Moulton, 
Treasurer,  when  the  lands  acquired  were  deeded  to  the  City. 

William  P.  Sargent  was  Secretary  of  the  Board  for  the 
whole  period  covered  by  its  records,  and  is  still  in  office,  for 
the  Board  yet  holds  the  title  to  some  land  in  Saugus,  which 
the  Park  Commissioners  are  unable  to  legally  acquire,  owing 


APPENDIX. 


95 


to  the  Statute  limiting  their  holdings  to  land  lying  in  Lynn. 
If  it  is  desired  to  include  the  tract  in  Penny  Brook  Glen 
that  lies  beyond  the  territorial  line  of  Lynn,  we  must  re- 
unite Lynn  and  its  ancient  West  Parish  —  Saugus. 


NAMES   OF   CONTRIBUTORS, 

Individuals  and  firms  who  pledged  the  sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars 
"  to  aid  the  City  of  Lynn  in  the  purchase  and  improvement  of  the 
laud  in  Lynn  Woods  as  a  Public  Part,"  and  who  have  actually  con- 
tributed (not  including  gifts  of  land)  the  sum  of  §21,440.00.  Names 
and  not  amounts  are  given,  for  it  is  the  public  spirit  that  should  be 
recorded,  rather  than  the  length  of  the  purse  : 


HENRY  A.  PEVEAR, 
CHARLES  A.  COFFIN, 
JOSEPH  N.  SMITH, 
CHARLES  H.  NEWHALL, 
BENJAMIN  F.  SPINNEY, 
PHILIP  A.  CHASE, 
FRANCIS  W.  BREED, 
AUGUSTUS  B.  MARTIN, 
WILLIAM  F.  MORGAN, 
BENJAMIN  DORE, 
JOHN  S.  BARTLETT, 
JOSEPH  DAVIS, 
LUTHER  S.  JOHNSON, 
GEORGE  K.  PEVEAR, 
CHARLES  B.  TEBBETTS, 
AARON  F.  SMITH, 
DAVID  H.  SWEETSER, 
WILLIAM  G.  S.  KEEXE. 
MOWER  &  BRO., 
LUCIAN  NEWHALL, 
CHARLES  S.  SWEETSER, 
BENJAMIN  W.  CURRIER, 
SAMUEL  J.  HOLLIS, 
AMOS  F.  BREED, 
JOHN  E.  DONALLAN, 
MARCUS  M.  PACKER, 
GEORGE  A.  CREIGHTON, 
ROLLIN  E.  HARMON, 
MICAJAH  P.  CLOUGH, 
EUGENE  BARRY, 
JAMES  PHELAN, 


BAKER,  MARSHMAN  &  BAKER, 
A.  M.  H.  HATHAWAY, 
THOMAS  STACY, 
T.  C.  JOHNSON  &  SON, 
SAWYER  &  CHASE, 
WILLIAM  A.  BOLAND, 
HOYT  BROS., 
RUMSEY  BROS., 
D.  A.  DONOVAN  &  Co., 
NATHAN  CLARK, 
LEWIS  P.  BARTLETT, 
DAVID  J.  LORD, 
KIMBALL  BROS., 
JOSIAH  C.  BENNETT, 
Louis  B.  RUSSELL, 
N.  EVERETT  SILSBEE, 
LYMAN  B.  FRAZIER, 
SHUTE  &  FAULKNER, 
CHARLES  O.  BEEDE, 
GEORGE  E.  BARNARD, 
FREDERICK  S.  PEVEAR, 
ENOCH  S.  JOHNSON, 
MARK  J.  WORTHLEY, 
CHARLES  H.  BAKER, 
JOHN  W.  HEALEY, 
LlTTLEFIELD  &,  PLUMMER, 
ALFRED  CROSS, 
HENRY  B.  SPRAGUE, 
WILLIS  W.  GEORGE, 
JAMES  P.  MARTIN, 
FRED  E.  ABBOTT, 


96 


IN   LYNN    WOODS. 


VALPKY  &  ANTHONY, 
PATRICK  LENNOX, 
CHARLES  W.  PORTER, 
E.  WILBUR  RICE,  JR., 
JOHN  MACNAIR, 
MARTIN  H.  HOOD, 
W.  HENRY  HUTCHINSON, 
JAMES  E.  JENKINS, 
JOHN  F.  SWAIN, 
WILLIAM  J.  CREIGHTON, 
BENJAMIN  V.  FRENCH, 
ROLLIN  A.  SPAULDING, 
PRATT  &  BABB, 
C.  H.  ABORN  &  Co., 
J.  W.  INGALLS  &  SON, 
QUINCY  A.  TOWNS, 
JOHN  T.  MOULTON, 
GEORGE  D.  SARGEANT, 
GEORGE  J.  CARR, 
WILLIAM  H.  NILES, 


EDWARD  HEFFERNAN, 
E.  W.  &  C.  F.  MOWER, 
T.  EDWARD  PARKER, 
S.  B.  FULLER  &  SON, 
WALTER  E.  BLANCHARD, 
MYRON  H.  WHITTREDGE, 
FRANK  KEENE, 
BROWN  &  ATHKRTON, 
HOUGHTON  &  GODFREY, 
FAUNCE  &  SPINNEY, 
A.  M.  &  J.  H.  PREBLE, 
L.  BEEBE  &  SONS, 
J.  B.  &  W.  A.  LAMPER, 
ELIHU  B.  HAYES, 
THOS.  P.  NICHOLS, 
EVERETT  H.  DUNBAR, 
ELBRIDGE  S.  YOUNG, 
DR.  J.  W.  GOODELL, 
CHARLES  A.  TABER, 
JOSEPH  D.  VALIQUET. 


*  AREA   OF  PUBLIC    GROUNDS. 


Lynn  Woods          .         . 

Meadow  Park        .... 

Lynn  Common  and  Park 

Goldfish  Pond  Park  (land  and  water) 

Washington  Square 

Highland  Square  .... 

Pine  Grove  Cemetery   . 

Eastern  Burial  Ground 

Western  Burial  Ground 

St.  Mary's  Cemetery     . 

St.  Joseph's  Cemetery  . 

Friends'  Cemetery 

*  Including  cemeteries  in  Lynn. 


Acres 

1650 

30£ 

21 

3 

j. 

4 
* 

133 

8 
10 

8 
lo 

2 


AREA  OF  PONDS. 


Walden  Pond 
Glen  Lewis  Pond 


Acres. 

128 
36 


APPENDIX.  97 


Acres. 

Birch  Brook  Pond 84 

Breed's  Pond 64 

Cedar  Pond  ..........  4 

Flax  Pond -      ...  75 

Floating  Bridge  Pond 17 

Goldfish  Pond 1£ 

Holder's  Pond 7 

Lily  Pond 4 

Sluice  Pond  ..........  50 


DISTANCES. 

Miles. 

From  Central  Square  (railroad  station)  to  the  landing,  ter- 
minus of  Lynn  &  Boston  R.  R.  at  head  of  Glen  Lewis  Pond  3 
From  same  to  Walden  Pond  dam  via  Walnut  street      .         .  4 
From  landing  head  of  Glen  Lewis  Pond,  to  "Walden  Pond 

dam  via  pond  roads  ........  2 

Round  trip  distance  from  Central  square  via  Wyoma  and  the 
Landing,  around  the  ponds,  return  by  Walnut  street,  pass- 
ing Birch  Pond,  to  Central  square 9£ 

From  Walnut  street,  at  Breed's  pond,  to  Dungeon  Rock      .  1£ 

From  the  same,  via  Dungeon  Rock,  to  Mt.  Gilead        .         .  2£ 

From  the  same,  or  Myrtle  street  car  station,  via  Dungeon 
Road  and  Great  Woods  Road,  to  the  landing  (Lynn  & 

Boston  R.  R.  station) 3£ 

From  the  landing  to  Mt.  Gilead    ......  1£ 

From  the  landing  to  the  top  of  Burrill  Hill  ....  £ 

From  terminus  of  Belt  Line  R.  R.  by  path  to  Dungeon  Rock  f 

From  same  to  Mt.  Gilead l£ 

From  same  to  Lantern  Rock 


HEIGHT  OF  HILLS   IN    LYNN  WOODS. 

Feet. 

Burrill  Hill 280 

Mt.  Gilead 272 

Mt.  Spickett,  near  L.  &  B.  station  at  the  lauding          .         .  278 

Pine  Hill i'_'4 

Dungeon  Rock 210 

Cedar  Hill     ....                  228 

,  High  Rock  is  180  feet. 
7 


98  IN   LYNN   WOODS. 


OF  THE  LAYING  OUT  OF  PUBLIC  PARKS  BY  TOWNS 
AND   CITIES. 

Acts  of  1882.     Chap.  154,  as  Amended  by  Chap.  240  of  the  Acts  of  1890. 

SECTION  1.  Any  town  in  this  Commonwealth  which 
accepts  the  provisions  of  this  act  in  the  manner  hereinafter 
prescribed  may,  at  a  legal  meeting  called  for  the  purpose, 
elect  three  competent  persons  who  shall  constitute  a  board 
of  park  commissioners  for  such  town,  and  may  prescribe 
their  terms  of  office ;  and  the  mayor  of  any  city  which  in 
such  manner  accepts  said  provisions  may,  with  the  approval 
of  the  city  council,  as  soon  as  may  be,  after  such  acceptance, 
appoint  five  competent  persons  who  shall  constitute  a  board 
of  park  commissioners  for  such  city,  and  who  shall  hold  their 
offices  until  the  expiration  of  terms  of  one,  two,  three,  four, 
and  five  years  respectively,  from  the  first  Monday  in  May 
next  following  such  appointment ;  and  the  mayor  shall,  be- 
fore the  first  Monday  in  May  in  each  year  thereafter,  with 
like  approval  appoint  one  such  commissioner  to  continue  in 
office  for  five  years  from  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  the 
commissioner  then  next  outgoing.  No  person  shall  be  such 
commissioner  who  is  at  the  same  time  a  selectman  or  treas- 
urer or  clerk  of  such  town,  or  a  member  of  the  city  council, 
clerk,  or  treasurer  of  such  city ;  and  any  such  commissioner 
may  be  removed  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  legal  voters 
of  such  town,  at  a  legal  town  meeting  called  for  the  purpose, 
or  by  a  concurrent  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  whole  of  each 
branch  of  such  city  council. 

SECT.  2.  Any  vacancy  occurring  in  such  board  shall  be 
filled  for  the  residue  of  the  term  of  the  commissioner  whose 
place  is  to  be  filled  in  the  manner  in  which  such  commis- 
sioner was  originally  appointed.  Such  commissioners  shall 
serve  without  compensation. 

SECT.  3.     Such  boards  of  park  commissioners  shall  have 


APPENDIX.  99 

power  to  locate  within  the  limits  of  their  respective  towns 
or  cities  a  public  park  or  parks,  and  for  that  purpose  from 
time  to  time  to  take  in  fee  by  purchase,  gift,  devise,  or  other- 
wise, any  and  all  such  lands  as  they  may  deem  desirable 
therefor,  or  to  take  bonds  for  the  conveyance  thereof  to 
their  respective  towns  or  cities ;  to  lay  out  and  improve 
any  such  park  or  parks ;  to  make  rules  for  the  use  and  gov- 
ernment thereof,  and  for  breaches  of  such  rules  to  affix 
penalties  not  exceeding  twenty  dollars  for  one  offence,  to  be 
imposed  by  any  court  of  competent  jurisdiction  ;  to  appoint 
all  necessary  engineers,  surveyors,  clerks,  and  other  officers, 
including  a  police  force  to  act  in  such  parks ;  to  define  the 
powers  and  duties  of  such  officers  and  fix  the  amount  of 
their  compensation ;  and  generally  to  do  all  acts  needful  for 
the  proper  execution  of  the  powers  and  duties  granted  to  or 
imposed  upon  such  town  or  city  or  upon  such  boards  by  this 
act ;  provided,  however,  that  no  land  shall  be  taken,  or  any 
other  thing  involving  an  expenditure  of  money  be  done 
under  this  act,  until  an  appropriation  sufficient  to  cover  the 
estimated  expense  thereof  shall  in  the  town  have  been  made 
by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  the  legal  voters  present,  and  vot- 
ing in  a  legal  town  meeting  called  for  the  purpose,  or  in  a 
city  by  a  vote  of  two-thirds  of  each  branch  of  the  city  coun- 
cil ;  and  such  expenditures  shall  in  no  case  exceed  the 
appropriations  made  therefor,  and  all  contracts  made  for 
expenditures  beyond  the  amount  of  such  appropriations 
shall  be  void ;  provided,  further,  that  in  a  town  no  taking 
of  land  otherwise  than  by  purchase  shall  be  valid  unless  such 
taking  is  reported  to  the  town,  filed,  accepted,  and  allowed, 
as  provided  by  section  seventy-one  of  chapter  forty-nine  of 
the  Public  Statutes  in  the  case  of  laying  out  town  ways. 

SECT.  4.  Such  boards  shall,  within  sixty  days  after  the 
taking  of  any  land  under  this  act,  file,  and  cause  to  be  re- 
corded in  the  registry  of  deeds  for  the  county  or  district  in 
which  any  land  so  taken  is  situated  a  description  thereof 
sufficiently  accurate  for  identifying  the  same. 


100  IN   LYXN   WOODS. 


SECT.  5.  Such  boards  shall  respectively  estimate  and 
determine  all  damages  sustained  by  any  person  by  the  taking 
of  land  or  by  other  acts  of  such  boards  in  the  execution  of 
the  powers  vested  in  them  respectively  by  this  act ;  but  a 
person  aggrieved  by  any  such  determination  of  the  board 
may  have  his  damages  assessed  by  a  jury  of  the  superior 
court  in  the  same  manner  as  is  provided  by  law  with  respect 
to  damages  sustained  by  reason  of  the  laying  out  of  ways. 
If  upon  trial  damages  are  increased  beyond  the  award,  the 
party  in  whose  favor  the  award  was  made  shall  recover  his 
costs ;  otherwise,  he  shall  pay  costs ;  and  costs  shall  be  taxed 
as  in  civil  cases. 

SECT.  6.  The  fee  of  any  land  taken  or  purchased  by  such 
boards  in  any  town  or  city  for  a  park  under  this  act  shall 
vest  in  the  town  or  city  in  which  such  park  is  laid  out ;  and 
such  town  or  city  shall  be  liable  to  pay  all  damages  assessed 
or  determined,  as  provided  in  the  preceding  section,  and  all 
other  costs  and  expenses  incurred  by  its  board  of  park  com- 
missioners in  the  execution  of  the  powers  vested  in  such 
board  by  this  act.  Any  town  or  city  shall  also  be  author- 
ized to  take  and  hold  in  trust  or  otherwise  any  devise,  grant, 
gift,  or  bequest  that  may  be  made  for  the  purpose  of  laying 
out,  improving,  or  ornamenting  any  park  or  parks  therein. 

SECT.  7.  The  boards  of  park  commissioners,  in  their  re- 
spective towns  and  cities,  shall  have  the  same  authority  to 
determine  the  value  of,  and  assess  upon  real  estate  the 
amount  of  betterments  accruing  to  said  real  estate  by  the 
locating  and  laying  out  of  a  park  or  parks  under  this  act 
that  is  conferred  by  chapter  fifty-one  of  the  Public  Statutes 
upon  boards  of  city  or  town  officers  authorized  to  lay  out 
streets  or  ways  ;  and  the  provisions  of  the  first  eight  sections 
of  said  chapter  relating  to  ways  shall  apply  to  such  assess- 
ments by  boards  of  park  commissioners  in  respect  to  the 
location  and  laying  out  of  parks  as  aforesaid ;  provided,  hoic- 
ever,  that  no  assessment  shall  be  laid  upon  any  real  estate 
except  such  as  abuts  upon  the  park  from  the  laying  out  of 


APPENDIX.  101 

which  the  betterment  accrues,  or  upon  a  street  or  way 
bounded  by  such  park. 

SECT.  8.  Any  town  or  city  in  which  a  public  park  is  laid 
out  under  this  act  may  raise,  appropriate  and  expend  such 
sums  of  money  as  may  be  deemed  best  for  the  purchase  and 
improvement  of  such  park  or  parks,  subject  to  the  laws  of 
this  Commonwealth  limiting  municipal  indebtedness. 

SECT.  9.  For  the  purpose  of  defraying  the  expenses  in- 
curred under  the  provisions  of  this  act,  the  city  council  of 
any  city  shall  have  authority  to  issue  from  time  to  time,  and 
to  an  amount  not  exceeding  the  sum  actually  expended  for 
the  purchase  or  taking  of  lands  for  a  park  or  parks,  bonds 
or  certificates  of  debt,  to  be  nominated  on  the  face  thereof 
the  "  Public  Park  Loan,"  and  to  bear  interest  at  such  rates 
and  to  be  payable  at  such  times  as  said  city  council  may 
determine.  For  the  redemption  of  such  loan  such  city 
council  shall  establish  a  sinking  fund  sufficient,  with  the 
accumulating  interest,  to  provide  for  the  payment  of  such 
loan  at  maturity.  All  amounts  received  for  betterments 
shall  be  paid  into  such  sinking  fund  until  such  fund  shall 
amount  to  a  sum  sufficient  with  its  accumulation  to  pay  at 
maturity  the  bonds  for  the  security  of  which  the  fund  was 
established. 

SECT.  10.  All  lands  taken  or  held  under  this  act  shall  be 
forever  kept  open  and  maintained  as  a  public  park  or  parks. 
No  building  covering  more  than  six  hundred  square  feet 
shall  be  placed  or  allowed  to  remain  on  any  such  park ;  and 
no  street  or  way,  and  no  steam  or  horse  railroad,  shall  be 
laid  out  over  any  portion  of  a  park  located  under  this  act, 
except  at  such  places  and  in  such  manner  as  the  board  of 
park  commissioners  shall  approve. 

SECT.  11.  No  military  encampment,  parade,  drill,  review, 
or  other  military  evolution  or  exercise  shall  be  held  or  per- 
formed on  any  park  laid  out  as  aforesaid  except  with  the 
consent  of  such  board ;  nor  shall  any  military  body,  without 
such  consent,  enter  or  move  in  military  order  within  such 


102  IN    LYNN   WOODS. 


park,  except  in  case  of  riot,  insurrection,  rebellion,  or 
war. 

SECT.  12.  All  such  boards  of  park  commissioners  shall 
make  reports  of  their  respective  doings,  including  detailed 
statements  of  all  receipts,  expenditures,  and  liabilities  for 
the  preceding  year ;  such  reports  to  be  made  in  towns  at  the 
annual  town  meetings,  and  at  such  other  times  as  the  town 
may  direct,  and  in  cities  to  the  city  council  annually  in  the 
month  of  December. 

SECT.  13.  This  act  shall  not  take  full  effect  in  any  town 
or  city  unless  accepted  by  a  majority  of  the  legal  voters  of 
such  town  or  city  present  and  voting  thereon  by  ballot  and 
using  the  check-list  at  a  meeting  or  meetings,  notice  whereof 
having  been  duly  given  at  least  seven  days  beforehand.  Said 
ballots  shall  be  "  yes  "  or  "  no  "  in  answer  to  the  question, 
"Shall  an  act  passed  by  the  legislature  of  the  Common- 
wealth in  the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-two,  entitled 
1  An  act  authorizing  towns  and  cities  to  lay  out  public  parks 
within  their  limits,'  be  accepted  ?  "  In  a  town  such  meeting 
shall  be  called  and  notified  in  the  manner  in  which  meetings 
for  the  election  of  town  officers  are  called  and  notified ;  and 
in  a  city,  meetings  to  act  thereon  shall  be  held  at  one  time 
in  the  usual  voting  places  of  the  city,  and  on  such  days  as 
shall  be  designated  by  the  board  of  aldermen  at  any  regular 
meeting,  and  shall  be  called  and  notified  by  the  board  of 
aldermen  in  the  manner  in  which  meetings  for  the  election 
of  municipal  officers  are  called  and  notified.  The  ballots 
cast  shall  be  assorted,  counted,  and  public  declaration  made 
thereof  in  open  town  or  ward  meeting,  as  the  case  may  be, 
and  the  number  of  ballots  respectively  cast  shall  be  registered 
in  the  town  or  ward  records,  as  the  case  may  be.  The  clerk 
in  each  ward  in  a  city  shall,  within  forty-eight  hours  of  the 
close  of  the  polls,  make  return  to  the  board  of  aldermen  of 
the  number  of  ballots  cast  in  his  ward  in  favor  of  the  ac- 
ceptance of  this  act  and.  of  the  number  cast  against  its 
acceptance.  The  selectmen  and  town  clerk  of  a  town,  and 


APPENDIX.  103 


the  board  of  aldermen  of  a  city,  in  which  such  meeting  or 
meetings  are  held,  shall  certify,  as  soon  as  may  be  thereafter, 
to  the  secretary  of  the  Commonwealth  the  whole  number  of 
ballots  cast  in  favor  of  the  acceptance  of  this  act,  and  of 
the  whole  number  cast  against  its  acceptance,  and,  if  it  shall 
appear  that  a  majority  of  the  ballots  have  been  cast  in  favor 
of  acceptance,  the  said  secretary  shall  immediately  issue  and 
publish  his  certificate  declaring  this  act  to  have  been  duly 
accepted  by  such  town  or  city. 

SECT.  14.  No  second  meeting  for  the  purpose  of  voting 
upon  the  question  of  accepting  this  act  shall  be  called  within 
twelve  months  from  the  first,  unless  the  first  meeting  shall 
have  failed  through  illegality  or  irregularity  in  the  proceed- 
ings. 


ORDINANCES. 

The  Board  of  Park  Commissioners  of  the  City  of  Lynn, 
by  virtue  of  its  authority  to  make  rules  for  the  use  and  gov- 
ernment of  the  Public  Parks  of  said  City,  and  for  breaches 
of  such  rules  to  affix  penalties,  hereby  ordains  that  within 
the  limits  of  Lynn  Woods,  except  with  the  prior  consent  of 
the  Board,  it  is  forbidden : 

1.  To  cut,  break,  injure,  deface,  defile  or  ill  use  any 
building,  fence,  or  other  construction,  or  any  tree,  bush  or 
turf,  or  any  other  thing  or  property, 

'2.     To  have  possession  of  any  freshly-plucked  tree  or  bush. 

3.  To  throw  stones  or  other  missiles;  to  discharge  or 
carry  firearms,  except  by  members  of  the  Police  force  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duties ;  to  discharge  or  carry  firecrackers, 
torpedoes  or  fireworks ;  to  make  fires ;  to  have  any  intoxi- 
cating beverages ;  to  sell,  to  offer  or  expose  for  sale,  any 
goods  or  wares ;  to  post  or  display  signs,  placards,  flags,  or 
advertising  devices ;  to  solicit  subscriptions  or  contributions ; 
to  play  games  of  chance,  or  have  possession  of  instruments 


104  IN    LYNN   WOODS. 


of  gambling;  to  utter  profane,  threatening,  abusive  or  in- 
decent language,  or  to  do  any  obscene  or  indecent  act ;  to 
bathe  or  fish  ;  to  solicit  the  acquaintance  of,  or  follow,  or 
otherwise  annoy  other  visitors. 

4.  To  allow  cattle,  horses,  or  other  animals  to  pass  over 
or  stray  upon  the  Park  lands,  provided  that  this  shall  not 
apply  to  those  used  for  pleasure  travel  when  on  the  ways  or 
places  provided  and  open  for  the  purpose. 

5.  To  drive  a  horse  or  horses  at  a  rate  faster  than  eight 
miles  an  hour. 

6.  To  ride  a  horse  at  a  rate  faster  than  ten  miles  an  hour. 

7.  To  drive  or  ride  any  animal  not  well  broken  and 
under  perfect  control  of  the  driver. 

8.  To   play  ball   or  other  games    or  sports,  except  on 
grounds  provided  therefor. 

9.  To  engage  in  conversation  with  men  at  work,  or  to 
obstruct,  hinder  or  embarrass  their  movements. 

10.  To  refuse  to  obey  the  orders  or  requests  of  either  of 
the  Commissioners,  or  of  the  Park  Police,  or  other  agents 
of  the  Commissioners,  and  to  refuse  to  assist  them  when 
required. 

Any  person  wilfully  doing  either  of  the  things  above  for- 
bidden shall  be  punished  by  fine  not  exceeding  twenty  dollars. 

Compliance  with  the  foregoing  regulations  is  a  condition 
of  the  use  of  these  premises. 


Date  Due 


A     000  674  342     1 


